


Samsara: Egregori

by Shivani



Series: Samsara [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, Slash, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2020-06-29 10:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 175,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19828132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shivani/pseuds/Shivani
Summary: Sequel toSamsara: Treading on Scorched Sand. Yet another life, though the complications are enlightening and frustrating.





	1. λ21: 01: 1999-2011

**Author's Note:**

> **1**. Subtitle is taken from Drakengard 3, and it’s the name of a boss in that, rather than a track title. ( _Egregori_ , or _Egregore_ , is an occult concept representing a collective psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people.)
> 
>  **2**. Again, why the hell not. This turned out to be way more difficult to deal with than I anticipated. I like the parts I like, I’m not so thrilled with the parts I don’t, but… But as always, if I care enough to finish a story, I post it, no matter how off or shitty some parts of it may be. 
> 
> **3**. P4 canon characters either serve altered versions of their roles, or do not appear at all. It depends on who they were and what purpose they served. Do I have a clear bias? You’re fucking right I do.
> 
>  **4**. Alterations to certain mechanics. I dislike Shuffle Time, and much prefer the approach P5 takes, which hearkens back to earlier SMT games. (Not that it matters, since it’s so rarely mentioned.) Playing fast and loose with the game mechanics, because I can, and because why not?
> 
>  **5**. There is a bare bones explanation of combat, mainly because the focus of this is not to go into exhaustive detail about actual battles or how stuff levels (I find that stuff boring, in case you somehow missed that detail). If you want to see that shit, go play the game. (I’ve only ever played the original P4, so there’s no intentional content from Golden.)
> 
>  **6**. Some days are skipped, and other days are incredibly short and bare bones.
> 
>  **7**. Minor influence from hiimdaisy’s excellent (and unfinished) P4 comic which, if you search, can be found on Mr Internet.
> 
>  **8**. Initial assembly: 14 07 2019

## λ21  
01: 1999-2011

Tsuna opened his eyes and sighed. The normal depressing ceiling was above his head so he knew he was back to being Sawada Tsunayoshi.

“Tsu-kun!?” was called up the stairs. “Go wash up, breakfast is about ready.”

‘Odd,’ he thought. ‘She didn’t sound nearly the same.’

‘Almost … strained,’ Daemon offered as the others hummed in agreement.

Tsuna rolled out of bed and trundled into the bathroom for the usual, then thumped down the stairs. His mother, upon his entry into the kitchen, gave him a distracted smile and gestured at the table. A moment later she slid a bowl of rice in front of him. A few sad flakes of fish were on top. Hashi followed a moment later, along with a rest.

After thanking her he started to eat, his gaze roaming around the room. It looked … shabby, almost, which was wrong. A glance at the calendar on the wall provided the next clue, as the current date looked to be his birthday, but in 1999.

‘I did see a five year old in the mirror, right?’

‘Yes,’ Sin said.

Tsuna set a spy on his mother when she turned her back, then finished up eating. Upstairs he went to get dressed; a glance out the window showed a familiar landscape, so at least that had not changed.

‘Priority on bodies?’ Ken asked hopefully.

He nodded. ‘Of course.’

A few minutes later he was off to find bodies for his family, starting with the Momokyokai. They were a bust in terms of flames, so he let Daemon take over long enough to get information on current competing groups in the vicinity. A trip to Okayama was more productive in that they stumbled over a decent strength Rain.

‘Anyone want to pick up a new flame, or…?’ he asked as he eyed the fellow.

After a long pause Hayato said, ‘I’ll take him. Can’t hurt to augment my Rain.’

A short time later there were two of them on the prowl. It took trips to various larger cities in Japan before they found bodies for everyone, and by the time they returned to Namimori they were all tired and hungry. Tsuna went into the house alone, so as to preserve appearances, and took in the sight of his mother busy at work … mending clothes?

He turned away from the sitting room and headed upstairs and into his room. The house trunk was yanked out of storage and shoved up against the wall, so his family would actually have rooms to stay in. No one had quite yet dared to try shifting straight into the trunk, since it was in question exactly where that space was—the interior.

Was it part of _Between_?

Something else?

His family arrived and filed into the trunk for their lunch, which Tsuna would sadly not be sharing. He went back downstairs after a quick stop to wash up and found his mother preparing instant ramen, which nearly made him hit the hospital so he could be checked for mind-altering drugs.

“Here you go, Tsu-kun. Careful now, I don’t want you to burn yourself.”

He accepted his “lunch” with a faint smile, ate, and retreated upstairs. A Mist barrier was emplaced that would redirect any notions his mother might have about checking on him, and that left him free to enter the trunk himself.

Daemon nudged a bento his way when he entered the kitchen, which was welcome. “Something is very, very wrong here,” he said as he sat and opened up the bento. “My mother mending clothing? Feeding me instant ramen for lunch? What the everloving fuck?”

“She looks tired, worn out.”

“Stressed, worried.”

“Instant ramen? Seriously?”

Tsuna nodded. “I would—”

“—be happy to check for you, darling,” Xeul said. “Tonight, after she’s gone to sleep.”

“Right.” He applied himself to the … better … food and started making plans to make sure the trunk’s kitchen was up to snuff in terms of supplies.

“For one, the timeline is obviously shifted,” Xeul reported the next day after breakfast. They were in that one park nobody ever seemed to frequent, which thankfully _was_ that one park nobody ever seemed to frequent. (It was quite disconcerting when it was otherwise.)

“The story goes as thus: Nana was celebrating Coming of Age Day, and you know how that goes. Too much booze, too much laxity… She was seduced by a blond man—three guesses, and the first two don’t count—and only later found out she was knocked up.”

Tsuna … sighed. “Okay, so we need the usual eyes on Vongola. He has no idea, I take it.”

“Not likely,” Xeul replied. “I will verify, of course. Now, once she realized she was in a family way, she panicked. But, the shock seemed to have knocked some of the airheadedness out of her. Once she calmed down a bit she crafted a story to sell to the public. She was recently married—he married into her family, not the other way around—and he was killed. She took what little inheritance she got—and her university money—and moved, to here. Bought herself a little place, and she’s been working herself ragged at jobs she can do from home to make sure you both eat and so forth.”

“There’s gotta be a way we can help ease some of the financial strain,” he said. “Suggestions?”

“I arranged for her to win that fake contest once,” Sin said.

“The Mafia Land trip?”

“Yeah. We could create some kind of lottery or contest and rig the results. Maybe during one of the public holidays? The next one coming up is what—Culture Day? And Labor Thanksgiving Day a few weeks after that.”

Tsuna furrowed his brow. “Unless you plan on having me fingerpaint something and it gets ‘randomly’ picked as the winner in a set up…”

“Surely you could do better than that,” Daemon said. “Though… Maybe a contest where all young children contribute a drawing or painting—and they all get a prize of some sort to share with their families—and Tsuna’s picture just so happens to be the one that is randomly drawn from the selection as the winner of the lottery for the grand prize. Or tickets under the seats of the parents and Nana is in the exact right seat, and therefore wins.”

“We couldn’t get away with this more than once or twice, though,” Hayato pointed out. “She might not be as spacey as usual, but I’m not willing to bet on her remaining oblivious to the family’s peculiar good fortune.”

“Jobs a child could do?”

“Gardening is out. Most of the yards in Japan are too small for anything beyond hanging clothes out to dry and you’re lucky if you have a tree to admire. I could start working on bonsai, but those take too long. Maybe once I’m in school she’ll take a more normal job to earn more money?”

“If so, that is something we can affect far more easily. In fact, why don’t we ensure she has that idea, even if we have to create the business ourselves.”

“Then we need to canvass the town to see what’s available and what might be welcomed,” he said.

“Moving on,” Xeul said. “Nana has a brother in Inaba, which we should check into, just to see how that relationship has been playing out. Apparently your name is Dojima Tsunayoshi. Nana has no idea who the man was who knocked her up, so it’s not like she can demand child support, and she’s too proud to ask her brother for help.”

“I’m going to make a wild guess that their parents are out of the picture,” Ken said, “due to the mention of an inheritance, if nothing else.”

“You know,” Tsuna said a bit bemusedly, “I don’t even know who my grandparents are. I’ve never once met one of them to my knowledge.”

Xeul nodded. “Dead. We should probably hold off on a Culture Day scheme. We don’t have much time to prepare, but we could still do it next year when Tsuna is dying of boredom in school. I think we should focus on a business here in town that Nana can be hired on at, and they’ll be terribly understanding if she needs time off for family.”

Tsuna looked at each of his family, then nodded. “Awesome.”

“There’s a shop in the arcade that looks to be coming up for sale soon,” Ken reported, nodding at Mukuro.

“A little digging revealed that the owner is considering moving out of town, and he’s not willing to just sell his business as is, as he plans to reopen in the new location,” Mukuro said.

“So we could convince him to sell to us, then set up our own shop.”

Mukuro and Ken nodded.

“I assume something to do with food,” Chikusa said. “After all, every Nana we’ve come across is a fantastic cook, even if this one doesn’t have the funds to actually show that.”

“Not sushi, obviously,” he said. “Maybe considering she served me instant ramen…”

Hayato snickered. “She’s good at so many things, though. Maybe we just aim for a small family-type restaurant? Not too many seats—certainly no bigger than TakeSushi—so that she as the main cook wouldn’t be overburdened?”

He hummed. “If it’s seen as somewhat exclusive, that could drive up the prices, and give us a reasonable excuse for paying her good money for the work. Maybe a weekly thing?”

“What do you mean?” Mukuro asked.

“Like beef dishes one week, pork another, and so on? To make it a bit different again from a normal restaurant.”

“I see. Limit the seating, limit the menu, and drive up interest.” Mukuro nodded. “I think it’s a good idea. We should make it happen.”

“Uh…” Hayato frowned thoughtfully. “Timed to open right around the time poor Tsuna has to enter school? Or a clone of him, anyway.”

Daemon and Xeul shifted into the room then and paused. “What’s up?” Daemon asked.

“We were discussing a shop option in town and ways to make it enticing,” he said, then went on to fill them in.

“Oh,” said Xeul. “That sounds like it might just work.”

“But perhaps we should enlist the local Daemon again,” Daemon said, “because…”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I was going to suggest that anyway. It’s worked out well before, so there’s no reason not to try again. What about you two?”

“Your uncle is a cop,” Daemon said with a smirk.

“…Great,” he said flatly. “Make a mental note to start checking to see who my grandparents are each time I end up as myself, yeah?”

Everyone nodded and Daemon continued, “Specifically, a detective, married to a woman by the name of Chisato.”

“Please tell me he’s not a bumbling idiot.”

Daemon shook his head. “He seems quite sharp. I’ll keep tabs on him in case it becomes relevant. Aside from that, he’s aware that his sister blatantly lied about getting married, but hasn’t said anything because he’s aware of the shame she must feel and doesn’t want to add to it, even though he disapproves.”

“Well, bastard children are just as looked down upon here as they are in Italy,” he said, then groaned. “I can be thankful she did lie, or else…”

“True, but even if it became known, a localized Bounding Box doesn’t hurt,” Hayato pointed out.

“And, you know, clones,” Ken said, shrugging.

“That’s a given,” he replied. “Okay, before I forget. We need to see if we can buy the house next door. SOP, basically.”

Daemon nodded, along with Mukuro and Hayato.

“Right, moving on,” Xeul said as a window opened up to reveal Sin checking in. A brief moment was given over to a nodding acknowledgment, then he continued, “Vongola is more or less par for the course, with the obvious exceptions. Teo-jiji is an idiot, the brothers three are idiots, and the layout of the Iron Fort is the same as λ16.”

“And the Tsow?”

Xeul rolled his eyes. “He’s married to a woman in CEDEF going by the name Cilantro. She’s strictly in-office, so the probability of her seeing combat is low. They already have two children, a boy and a girl, and she was shunted into a job where she can both keep an eye on them and work. No idea yet if either of them are Skies, but at least the bloodline is being carried on. And for reference, aside from being a bit of a bland pushover, Cilantro isn’t an idiot.”

“At least this time he married someone in the know,” he said. “I never thought I’d say it, but I feel bad for my mother. One moment of drunken stupidity… Okay, Sin?”

“The Arcobaleno are so far the usual,” Sin reported. “I suggest we just get everything set up with Talbot and the Vindice, and get Checkers to do the convincing when it comes to getting the Arcobaleno to convene and contribute. As amusing as it is to troll my dimensional brothers, sometimes a person needs a rest.”

Tsuna grinned.

“I won’t be much longer. Should be back tomorrow or the next day. Just need to track down Viper, if that’s even possible.”

A collective grimace went through the room.

“Well, if you can’t, it’s no big deal, right? We’ll just work through Checkers this time and get him to yank all of them into a shared dream and call them to assemble. I am starting to wonder if one of us is strong enough at this point to infiltrate Checkers’ brain and find out his basic geographical history.”

Daemon perked up. “I suppose I could try via window, assuming we could get a tag on the guy long enough to figure out where to open a window to. Something to think about, certainly.”

“Unless there’s a better way to locate him using magic,” Sin pointed out. “Or some combination thereof. Assuming you have him in a room with you, someone could be quietly running tests? Develop some sort of divining rod to be used each time to track him down, without having to resort to writing messages in the sky?”

“Let’s add it to the list,” he said. They didn’t often use magic, mainly because they were so accustomed to doing things the usual way. Extended trunks aside, there was little perceived need for it. There were instances where it came in exceptionally handy, but for the most part their flames and experience won out.

Not having to wear himself down with unanchored Bounding Boxes was a plus, though it did mean keeping a store of portable ward stones for those moments, and someone had to take the time to carve the things (Ken and Chikusa really shone when it came to that). It meant that Tsuna did not always have to be along to handle protection. The others could make Bounding Boxes, but none of them had quite the innate understanding and knack for them that Tsuna had. Ward stones filled the gap.

“All right, well,” Sin said. “Let me take a stab at tracking my prey, and I’ll be home soon. Anything you want me to bring back?”

“Limoncello. And if you see anything that would work for shop stock that’s … acquirable…”

Sin grinned toothily. “Seen you guys soon.” The window winked out.

“We’ll start working on a way to use magic to track people with,” Chikusa said. “While it is true that the spies can last longer each time we get shuffled, if we can’t place one to begin with…”

Tsuna nodded.

“On a side note,” Mukuro said, “while I don’t like the kid, I do feel for him. What say we keep an eye on the Yamamoto family and prevent the wife’s death? Maybe if she survives the kid won’t grow up so fake. I’m going to assume he’s still born on schedule.”

“Do we even know how she died?” Daemon asked.

Tsuna shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. It originally always happened before I was aware of Takeshi as a person. Funny, I go out of my way to help the ones I know will get tortured, but forget about people like him because he generally ends up mostly all right. Yeah, maybe we should. There’s no reason not to. And if it was a result of Tsuyoshi’s previous involvement with the mafia… Let’s just say I don’t want outsiders fucking around in my territory.”

“There’s a thought,” Daemon said, looking contemplative. “How hard would it be to set up warding that would encompass the town? I expect it would take quite some time to get it done, but…”

“The peace of mind of knowing that Nana would be protected…” He bit his lip, still having issues trying to resolve his general distaste for or indifference to the woman against her current incarnation’s problems. “And plenty of other innocent people…”

“I’m going to take that as yes. True, we can ward the house itself, but that won’t protect her or anyone else away from it. Xeul, Hayato?”

They both nodded.

“Okay, so, current plans. Keeping an eye on Tsuyoshi’s wife, working out warding for the house and town, figuring out a tracking system, and ensuring we get that shop. Well, and see about lining up potential suppliers.”

The shop, once acquired, was technically under the ownership of the local Daemon, who was going by Caim to differentiate himself from his dimensional brothers, mostly because of the obvious. Said ownership would only matter for when Tsuna inevitably died another hilariously stupid death. In the meantime they would be making sure the place ran smoothly.

Shitty customers causing trouble? A Mist would be right there to “fix” things. Because hey, even a polite society like Japan’s had problems with entitled assholes demanding things.

“How we gonna decorate?” Ken asked.

Tsuna pursed his lips. “Maybe something to go with the changing menu per week?”

“What, like colours or something?”

“Eh, sure. Like, I dunno, green for vegetarian week? Or something.”

Xeul wrinkled his nose, but nodded. “Red for beef week?”

Sin looked like he was burbling acid when he said, “Yellow for chicken?”

“That leaves four more,” he said. “Uh…”

“Pork,” Ken said slowly, “and seafood, which could be blue.”

“Purple for pork?” Mukuro said. “Venison?”

“Which would leave one more—let’s say orange—and maybe … fru—no. Fruit dishes would fall under vegetarian. Hn.”

Everyone looked around a bit helplessly.

“Turkey and such isn’t exactly common here, though duck, maybe? No, maybe not. Maybe the final one could be foreign? Rotate countries or something? And since orange represents the all-encompassing Sky…”

Tsuna nodded at Sin. “I think that could work, though it’d mean Nana learning how to cook foreign foods. Then again, during those weeks, for the first year, maybe, I could be the one doing the cooking and she could learn from me. But the intervening six weeks she’d be the cook, since she’d probably already know most of that. And with a steady salary she could afford to practice at home.”

“And since we’ll be expecting this to act like a loss leader at the start, she’ll have time to firm up her skills. Though that does mean we need to finish properly establishing where the money is coming from.”

“Yeah, true, but back to the colours thing,” Hayato said. “You want to change the colours every week? How?”

“Depends on how the furniture is made,” Chikusa said. “For example, if the tables were designed such that the top is a removable inlay of sorts… And the seating is a neutral cream, perhaps…”

“Oh, you mean sorta like those tables where you can pop the glass out,” Ken said.

“The idea works for me,” he said. “We could consider the idea of swapping out any artwork, but that would depend on how cozy we wanted to make the place. I’ll go ahead and work out a menu. That way we’ll know what suppliers we’ll need to source, what equipment we’ll need to have purchased, and so forth.”

“That guy isn’t leaving for another two months, so we have some time,” Xeul said. “And even if we’re not ready the second he leaves, it’ll be fine. We can hype up interest via word of mouth.”

“And we need to get Nana on board,” Mukuro reminded them.

Tsuna knew the answer to that one: delegate! “Not gonna be me doing it.”

Daemon laughed at him and nodded. “I’ll handle it.”

“Point,” Chikusa said. “We have yet to come up with a name for the place.”

‘Shit.’ He thought fast and came up with the potentially lame, “Kaiten.”

Seven sets of eyes stared at him for a too-long moment before Sin said, “It fits?”

“Awesome!”

It took longer than originally expected to outfit the new place, but most of that came down to the manufacture of the booth tables. Custom work took time. The idea of changing out the artwork every week was nixed as being simply too much trouble. Instead they decorated with “odd” works of art, such as a silver bird fashioned from spoons, a butterfly fashioned from peacock feathers, and other such interesting or unconventional uses of items as artwork.

Nobody needed to see yet another abstract painting (no matter how pretty some of them could be) or generic landscape, and they definitely did not need to see peculiar light fixtures or gleaming modernity.

The only concession to colour (aside from the table inlays) was on the walls, which were painted a base colour of cream. Tsuna had sketched out a kind of smoke trail in a band around the main room. It used a subtly shifting set of pastels to create an unconventional rainbow of colour, a head nod to their flames.

The place only had four tables, booths each, two to a side, and there was a three-quarter height partition wall between each pair and one each at the end that faced the counter which held the cash register. Each visible part of the partition walls was stained glass, showing the number of the booth (though they were numbered zero through three, to avoid using four).

While all that was going on Tsuna worked out the menu rotation and dishes for each week. Xeul found a programmer and convinced him to write a program that would allow customers to book hour slots at the restaurant using a screen outside, and specify what they intended to have for dinner. That way, Nana would know exactly what was coming up and could prep accordingly, so that the food would be ready almost as quickly as they were seated.

Hours were slated to be noon to six, giving six slots of four per day, six days a week. Nana would come in at 11.30 and could take breaks at any time she had the opportunity, as they would be employing a person to both man the register and play waitperson.

There would be no walk-ins. If a slot wasn’t booked, it didn’t get seated. The system depended on Nana being able to know exactly how to prep beforehand for each day. The computer in the back was to show Nana what was coming up and allowed her to enter any notes as necessary (such as to keep track of a customer’s peculiarities), and would help her with time management.

Given that they were in Japan and touch-screen technology had been out for some time, the external booking screen had no keyboard.

Tsuna fully expected his mother to object to the hours, simply because her son was so young. “But,” he said to Daemon, “you can simply tell her that her son is welcome to stop by to visit and have a small meal in the afternoon, so that she knows he’s getting fed.”

Daemon nodded. “That might cause the occasional hiccup during foreign weeks given that you intend to be the one teaching her how to make those dishes. But, we can fake her out on that with clones and misdirection, or having her son be spending time with a friend after school to ease her mind.”

“Right. One of us is going to have to be accepting deliveries, because she’s not going to have time, most likely. Suppose we could hire someone part-time, or have the front person come in early to handle it. Maybe the Monday delivery we could handle, and the front person any other day?”

Sin frowned. “Some things don’t suffer for having been frozen, but daily deliveries are probably a better idea during seafood weeks. The way the hours work out now they’d be in for just under forty hours per week, but I don’t see a problem bumping that up a bit and paying overtime. We could also split the front shift in half, with two part-timers, to allow an older student to earn some cash.”

“Assuming they were properly vetted,” Mukuro said. “A mother in town in a similar position to Nana could handle the first half, to earn some on the side, but still be home in time to be with her child or children, with a student we know will be reliable to handle the latter half.”

“Also possible,” he said. “And… We could sell Nana on making a small lunch for her child to eat in or take away on those days he’d not be in school and she’s working.”

“Well, I’m going to start finding candidates in town,” Mukuro said. “We can vet them once we have a short list.”

Daemon and Xeul nodded.

“I will, obviously,” Daemon said, “be presenting a convincing pitch to get Nana to agree. We’re coming up on the time when Tsuna will be—ostensibly—forced into school, and we need everything lined up, ready to go.”

“All right,” he said with a sigh. “Let’s get going, then.”

By the time Tsuna was scheduled to start school, Daemon had worked his magic and Nana was set to take over the role of chef. They had found a young mother in town with a child not much older than Tsuna was, and she was happy to take on the first shift each day. A second year high school student was taking the second shift. His Mists had very carefully poked through the girl’s brain to ensure she wasn’t hiding any psychotic tendencies (or a penchant for theft) before giving their approval.

Tsuna himself, in his Heul disguise, had gone over each dish with Nana during the weeks previous to opening day, to make sure she could handle the work. He showed her how the computer back there worked and verified that she actually understood.

“I’ll be here for at least the first week, if not several, to make sure you’ve got this,” he said.

She smiled in relief and nodded. “And my little boy?”

“Welcome to come here so you can make sure he’s had lunch or dinner,” he assured her. “Once he gets a little older I imagine it won’t be as much of an issue. And I expect he’ll make friends with his classmates, so some days he might be sharing a meal with one of them. You’re also free to make meals to take home with you each evening. We’d just need to account for it in our ordering, that’s all. Consider it a perquisite of the job.”

They already had people lined up for the first few days in terms of reservations, but that had more to do with his Mists subtly prompting people to do so rather than anyone blithely taking a chance on this strange new restaurant. Once others saw some of their fellow townsfolk using the screen outside they would likely follow, and once word got out about the meal quality…

His Mists took on a rotating duty. One would be keeping an eye on the Tsuna clone they crafted that would be attending school. One would be keeping an eye on the restaurant, while the other was keeping an eye on the town in general.

The others would be working on the warding his Mists had started to make “blueprints” for, starting with Nana’s house, moving on to the house they’d acquired, and then to the town in general. Because, in the end, while none of them particularly liked Nana (or many of the people in the town), they were compassionate enough to make the effort.

This time, anyway.

His Mists, after word started to spread and people started making reservations of their own free will, stopped nudging people into it. Nana’s cooking was hailed as fantastic and everyone wanted to have a meal at Kaiten. Tsuna was just pleased that his mother was holding up exceptionally well and rarely needed his help with anything.

He generally sat in the small office back there and read, or browsed world news on a fledgling internet. Each Sunday they would descend as a crew to swap out the table inlays, but that took barely any time at all.

It was only when they got to Foreign Week that he actively stepped in so he could walk her through crafting the dishes. He planned to keep doing so each Foreign Week until she was confidant she could handle it on her own. He was already confident she’d be fine for the other six weeks of each rotation.

She happily enough went home Saturday evening, meals in hand, and Tsuna stepped _Between_ the second she was out of sight so her baby boy could be home before she got there. He was back in his natural form and reading a children’s book on the sofa when his mother slipped into the house.

“Tsu-kun, I’m home!” she called. “Wash up, please. I have dinner for us.”

He dutifully put aside the book and went to wash up, then joined his mother in the kitchen. A plate with a turkey club sandwich and fries awaited him. Thankfully for him, the fries were still warm. He thanked his mother and dove in, listening as she nattered on cheerfully about her job and what interesting food she got to make and various other things.

Tsuna did his best to appear interested in what she was saying, or at least encouraging, though he didn’t honestly imagine she was expecting much from her five year old son when it came to conversational skills. He was pleased to see that she looked far less stressed and more alive, more energetic, than she had previously.

She did still spend some of her time in the evenings doing repair work on clothing, but he got the idea that it was more out of habit than desire.

Upstairs and inside the trunk, his family convened for a quick meeting. “Things appear to be going well,” he said, relaxing back in his chair.

“We,” Daemon said, speaking for the Mists as a group, “have yet to notice anything odd while keeping eyes out, so yes.”

“We’ve managed to complete the warding on this house,” Chikusa reported, “and will shortly get started on the other house.”

“And priming it?” he asked.

“It’d be better if we all chipped in for that,” Hayato said. “We can just make sure Nana sleeps extra soundly that night. It’d be better to get it done in one session rather than risk too much bleed off if we spread it out.”

He nodded. “Pick a day, we’ll do it. Anything else to report?”

“The children at school think you’re painfully shy,” Xeul said, “but other than that…?”

Tsuna shrugged. “Since the next six weeks is all stuff Nana is already good on, we should probably turn our attention toward freeing the current Arcobaleno. Still have one person keeping an eye on Kaiten and Nana, but whoever is not already occupied with something…”

“We need to track that fucker down,” Sin said.

“The tracker we’ve been working on gives a faint pull toward the arcade, actually,” Chikusa reported. “And yes, we’ve tested it from various points in Namimori. An antiques shop, to be specific.”

Tsuna gawked. “He’s here!? In Namimori of all fucking places?”

“It appears that way. We’d have said something sooner, but we were convinced at first the device had to be malfunctioning.”

“Why the hell would he be here?” he muttered. “Is this place some sort of fucked up nexus or something?”

Everyone looked at him like he was ten shades of mental.

“Heul, _you_ are a nexus,” Sin said. “Is it really that much of a surprise that Namimori might be one, too, with you so often in it?”

“Uh…” He shook his head. “Right, whatever. So, Checkers. If he’s here, we need to see if we can reliably tag the fucker. Better than me sky-writing tagged to wisps of memory regarding the feel of his flames. I don’t think Sin should go anywhere near him.”

“You worry he would equate my flames with my counterpart’s.”

“Yeah. I mean, well, yours are augmented now, and you have more than just Sun Flames, but… I worry.”

Sin gave him a look that was half indulgent and half exasperated, but nodded.

“I would say … Chikusa,” Xeul opined. “He’s the one person here aside from Ken who doesn’t scream underhanded and slick in some way—”

Chikusa’s expression twisted for a second, as if to say he wasn’t sure if he should feel complimented or insulted.

“—and I think he won’t set off any mental alarm bells if he goes into that shop to browse.”

“It is too early, most likely, for Checkers to be scouting replacement Arcobaleno, so the flame strength of whoever does go in should not be more than a curiosity,” Mukuro said, “and I agree that Chikusa is a good choice to take a look.”

Chikusa sighed and nodded. “How old should I—actually, I should just be what this body is. Checkers will more than likely see through a disguise. That being said, what’s my budget for acquiring items to allay suspicion?”

“He might not see through an anchored Heul disguise,” Hayato pointed out, “but there’s no particular reason to use one, I guess.”

Tsuna hummed. “As for a budget, I’d say … no more than one-hundred thousand yen. I doubt you’d spend that much as it is, but who knows. There might be something interesting in there. If he doesn’t appear suspicious, then I might try going in myself, as myself, while trying to keep my flames under wraps.”

“I’d suggest a Fidelius Charm to hide that you have them at all,” Ken said, “but we don’t actually know how to end one of those. You know, without killing you. And he’s like an alien species to us, so … it might not work, anyway?”

He shrugged. “We can only hope it would break once we were shuffled. We don’t know what that charm attaches to. If it’s the soul, then we’d be fucked if I went from being Tsuna here to Tsuna in the next one. We don’t know how literal those are, either. I don’t have a problem with using one to hide a location being used for a specific purpose, but to hide aspects of myself? I’m not comfortable with that.”

“We could always try it on a mind-fucked defect,” Daemon said. “Or series of them. So long as we ensured they told _us_ the secret, it shouldn’t come back to bite us on the ass.”

“We need to go over our books on the Fidelius Charm again before I’m willing to experiment with it,” he said. “I find it hard to believe they would make something like that without a way to release it. Then again, considering they’re all mental, they might just have, and the only way to break one is to break the conditions.”

“Speaking of which,” Mukuro said, “has anyone bothered to check to see if there are magicals in this world?”

Looks went around the room, followed by shrugs.

“Because if we start obviously fucking with magic, and there are, they might come knocking.”

Tsuna heaved a sigh. “Whoever is on rotation to keep an eye on the town, switch focus to figuring that out first. We don’t use it often, true, but we should at least be aware if it could be an issue each go around. For all we know we could end up in a dimension where magicals did not progress to using wands, and they might have ways to track down wandless magic use. And, while I realize we could easily mind-fuck anyone who surprised us, it’s better to be proactive if we’re going to genuinely consider the idea of experimentation.

“Now,” he said, after everyone nodded, “Chikusa can go in and we see if that sets off any mental alarms. If not, we can try poking around in his head, via window first, and then in person if necessary. We may actually be strong enough now.” He paused. “Okay, not me, if only because I still have the occasional unfortunate accident. If Daemon can manage it, there’s every chance that Xeul and Mukuro are also capable at this point.

“My main concern is that we fuck this up, he’s alerted, and he comes after us. We could end up starting over early, which would be frustrating, to say the least, but not a major setback, if only because we still have no idea why this is happening.”

Chikusa placed a bag on the table in the living area of the trunk and produced an eighteenth century netsuke of a parrot on a log. “It was within budget,” he said, “and I liked it.”

Tsuna nodded. “It’s cute.”

“This one has a Hell ring,” Chikusa reported. “Clearly he did not find me threatening enough that he hid from me, or hid that he had one. As for his flames, they felt very distinctive to me, and strong, but…”

“But…?”

Chikusa looked at the Mists. “I would hazard a guess that you may be stronger at this point. You may be able to easily get into his brain and get his history.”

Daemon, being the “oldest” of the trio, nodded after looking at Tsuna for approval. “All right, then. I will do my absolute best to get what we need, without being noticed. We’re still going to have to get him to cooperate. I agree with Sin. As amusing as it is to troll people, a guy wants a break every now and then. Let Checkers call the assembly.”

“I’m wondering if we should be straight with him,” Ken said, “or sneaky.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Depending on what Daemon can get out of his brain… Well. Do we make him think a spy of his stumbled over the knowledge of what we’re setting Talbot and the Vindice up to do? Get him to act on his own? Or just lay it out straight?”

Tsuna shook his head. “If Daemon is in fact strong enough, I see no point in not being straight. If he’s not, being sneaky might be an interesting choice. We’ve seen no real evidence that Checkers can look sideways, so he’s not in a position to disseminate the solution, not like Byakuran could, or Aria potentially. I have to wonder if it’s a uniquely human ability. The only other person we’ve come across that seems even semi-aware of alternates is Talbot, but even he doesn’t seem capable of independently, directly interfering.”

“If we’re lucky,” Daemon said with a sly smile, “I can get the secret out of him as to how to effect the changeover, and then we can cut him out completely in subsequent dimensions. If it really does depend on some ability of whatever race or species he is…” He shrugged.

“The ring, on the other hand…” Tsuna frowned. “I can sorta get why he _might_ have done that, based on what pure intentions Giotto had, with the idea that his family would continue to be that way, to endure. Why he didn’t do that for Giglio Nero… I can only imagine it had some snobby, racist origin what with Sepira being like him and having bred with us lesser people, and clearly her descendants would do the right thing due to their prescience, always.”

“I might get lucky and find that information, too,” Daemon said. “We’ll see. I will be at my absolute best when it comes to subtlety and sneakiness, darling Heul.”

He smiled softly. “I know you will, brother. Give it a week to put a little distance in there?”

“Just in case Checkers sensed something about Chikusa and is playing it cool for the moment,” Daemon said with a nod. “All right.”

“He does have interesting stuff for sale,” Chikusa said. “But if he really has been alive for centuries, that rather makes sense given that he’s chosen to play normal folk and hide out amongst the peasants.”

“After what Aria and Yuni had to say at various points,” he said, “I expect he doesn’t have any of his own people left to socialize with. The only thing he can do is slum it with humanity, we ignorant, indelicate, plague-like beings infesting this planet.”

“Someone’s still touchy over being scared to death,” Sin teased.

Tsuna shot a flat raspberry at his lover.

Daemon had a smile on his face that screamed smug satisfaction.

“I’m going to assume you were strong enough,” he said, amused by how his brother behaving. He used illusion to cause a dozen male peacock feathers to fan out behind Daemon, then lost it when his family started laughing.

Daemon caught on when he glanced back over his shoulder and scowled viciously. “Who did this!?”

Tsuna raised a hand, still laughing.

His brother’s scowl softened noticeably, but he still looked annoyed. “Tch. I was successful, of course,” he said a bit snottily.

Tsuna resolved to make his brother something extra nice to make up for teasing him.

“For one thing I have a very good feel for his flames,” Daemon said, a bit of his smugness coming back. “I also managed to get a history from him, which I’ve written out. We can add it to the board and to the computers. Unfortunately, he _is_ necessary for both shifting to the new system, and fixing that damn ring. We can’t do it.”

He heaved a sigh and nodded.

“He considers himself a ‘True Earthling’,” Daemon continued, complete with air quotes. “He’s immensely strong in his Mist Flames, far more so than any normal active human. In some ways it’s not a wonder he sees us all as dirt-grubbing Neanderthals.”

“And yet, you’re now stronger than him.” Tsuna laughed merrily. It was a weight off his mind. “So… We can get things set up with Talbot and the Vindice, ready to go, then confront Checkers in his lair. What is his name, anyway?”

Daemon smirked. “He calls himself Kawahira. It changes from time to time, or country by country. He rather likes Japan, though. Finds us all more civilized in comparison to the rest of the world.”

Tsuna snorted in disbelief. “I love my country, but… There are just as many societal problems here as there are in any other country. More civilized?” He shook his head. “Right, whatever. Let’s do what we can to get things set up during the periods when I’m not having to be at Kaiten during Foreign Week.”

Daemon moved over to the huge white board they had up as a project planner and started writing. Hayato responded by hauling a laptop out of storage and started transcribing the information into a document.

Tsuna knew something was up when he was fifteen. Kaiten had done well over the intervening years. Nana had become very confident in her work and had pushed for additional recipes to be added to the menu, even during Foreign Week. She was so confident after a while that she had started to come out into the main room to socialize a little with their clients.

On the one hand it made Tsuna … happy. His mother, a woman he generally didn’t even see as human, had come into her own. She was doing so well. She knew she was awesome in the kitchen, though she retained a general level of humility and downplaying of her abilities. The blushing was to be expected, too.

But then came a man.

Tsuna had noticed his mother had begun sighing a lot at home and started paying attention, wondering if she’d slipped into depression when he wasn’t looking, but no. They were sighs accompanied by wistful looks and secret smiles and—

‘Kami-sama,’ he thought.

After dinner he stepped over to the other house and called a meeting. “Am I imagining things,” he said, “or has Nana fallen for someone?”

Most of them didn’t pay much attention to the woman beyond making sure she was healthy, did good work for Kaiten, and wasn’t being harassed. Despite Tsuna’s softening of a deeply-ingrained dislike or indifference (it varied based on how she acted each life), he could not bring himself to get attached. He faked it fairly well. At least, when she was there to witness it.

Everyone exchanged looks and shrugged, essentially admitting they had not been paying attention.

For whatever reason, Iemitsu getting married and getting his wife knocked up repeatedly had set a fire under the brothers three, who seemed to think looking like good, respectable Catholic boys was all the rage. They, too, had found wives and starting having babies, so the odds of every last one of them dying in a tragic accident was diminishing more every year.

True, it had not prevented Enrico from buying the farm in a mass shoot-out, but there were plenty of bloodline Vongola alive. Once Samsara saw how the wind was blowing in that part of the world, they fell back to keeping a more distant eye on the situation. They did the same with the “former” Arcobaleno, letting them live their lives without interference. The only exception had been his Mists planting a solution in Verde’s head regarding a way to age them up to at least be adult in appearance again, rather than having to get there the long and torturous way.

Over the next few weeks they kept a closer eye on Nana and, sure enough, a man had come into her life, one Ishihara Ebisu. He was a businessman who regularly stopped into Namimori due to a craftsman who lived in town, whom he purchased from for resale elsewhere. Ishihara had tried Kaiten one day (though he had had to call in his reservation for his next trip, due to all slots at the time being reserved) and kept coming back.

“He took a superficial liking to her at first,” Xeul reported, “but that started to deepen. He also adores her cooking. But then, so does everyone once they’ve had the opportunity to taste it.”

“Everyone not Samsara,” Ken muttered.

Xeul nodded in agreement. “She, in turn, during her forays into the main room to socialize with the customers, has developed a bit of a crush on the guy. I can’t tell yet if it’ll develop into something deeper or…”

Tsuna felt a bit torn. On the one hand, this version of Nana worked hard, had been doing it all on her own to make sure her unexpected son had a decent, if not good, life. She deserved love, right? On the other hand, his general experience with various Nanas made him immediately wonder if that would translate to her fixating on her man and essentially neglecting him.

Probably a good thing he was nearly sixteen, and already had a family he knew would stick by him no matter what. If she did switch focus, he wasn’t especially going to be hurt by it.

‘I really should learn better,’ he thought. ‘You’d think being hundreds of years old would…’

Nana was getting very serious with Ishihara, to the point that he was dropping into Namimori outside of work just so they could go on dates. That in itself was fine, but… They were talking about marriage. Also fine. But then…

“We’ll be going on a honeymoon,” Nana told him, her expression one of bliss. “But… That would mean Kaiten would be without a cook for a while.”

“Can’t the owner cover that?” he asked. “Well, that one guy? Um…”

“Suda-san?” she offered.

He nodded. His alter-ego was Suda Mashiro (found, amusingly enough, with a random name generator), since he couldn’t see using any form of Heul for what was essentially a throwaway identity.

“Yes,” she said. “Well, I hope so. I plan to speak to the owner soon, once we firm up our plans.”

Not a problem in his eyes, though it would mean having to be the cook during the time she was away, which would produce a noticeable difference in the quality of the food. Eh, he could get his Mists to ensure people who frequented Kaiten would prefer Nana’s cooking to his, while still enjoying what he served.

“Oh, okay,” he said. “Eh, how long of a honeymoon?”

Nana continued to not notice his distinct lack of enthusiasm as she sighed happily and said, “A month!”

‘Shit. On the one hand, that sucks. On the other hand, no pretending I like my mama for a whole month.’ He could almost imagine the snickering that was bound to be happening on the other side of whatever window was spying on them. Tsuna didn’t doubt Nana had enough in savings to cover household bills for the time she’d be away, and he was more than old enough to be on his own for that length of time.

The problem came in when she stated making noises about moving to Tokyo to live with her new husband. And, well, Tokyo was hours away from Namimori. There was no way she could continue to be Kaiten’s cook.

Tsuna looked at his family in consternation. “What do you think? Just sell the place? See if Caim wants to continue it as a legit source of income, just with a new chef? Where is he right now, anyway?”

Daemon shrugged. “I’ll drop a note in the usual place. As far as alternates go, he’s rather more detached.”

“I’m thinking if he wants to keep it as a source, we need to find a new chef _now_ ,” he said, “so that I have time to shadow them, train them, and so that Kaiten can still keep going. We should probably transition in new people to handle the accounts, as well, but we should get Caim in on that. He might have someone in mind, or he might not care so long as they’re honest and competent.”

“Well, yeah,” Hayato said. “You’re going to die a hilariously stupid death at some point, so I won’t be here to do the books.”

Daemon nodded. “I’ll make sure all of that is in the letter and that we need an answer as soon as he can manage one.”

“Uh…”

Tsuna looked at Sin curiously.

“She’s planning to move to Tokyo. What is she planning for you, Heul?”

That took him aback for a moment. It hadn't crossed his mind.

The answer to that turned out to both simple and a complete pain. Nana was planning to shuffle him off to live with his uncle in Inaba. Ishihara had no use for a step-son and Nana, deep in her heart, was pleased with the idea of no longer having to deal with the blatant results of her drunken mistake. And, she reasoned, he was nearly an adult. How she figured four more years of being considered a minor was “nearly”…

“Right,” he said, once Xeul had reported this exciting information. “We need to buy a house in Inaba as quickly as possible. Once we have that and we’ve moved, we can sell the one here, I guess. I can’t see staying involved in Kaiten. I mean, we only did it so Nana had a decent income and didn’t have to work herself to the bone to provide for us. If she’s not there…”

His twins exchanged a look. “We’ll both track down a house,” Xeul said, “and have another look at your uncle.”

“You said…” Tsuna had to think back to remember right. “Chisato was killed in a car accident, right? I vaguely remember sending a card with an offering.”

“Correct. The daughter, Nanako—probably named after your mother—is seven and due to start her first year of elementary. Her birthday is ten days before yours, actually. Chisato died when Nanako was in preschool. A hit and run accident.”

“This is going to be a bit awkward,” he said. “I have a cop for an uncle, who probably isn’t thrilled to be saddled with his nephew—his _illegitimate_ nephew—and may well be suspicious of me. Great. Wonderful.” He smiled a plastic smile of happiness.

Daemon rolled his eyes. “Honestly, brother. You know we can fix that, if it’s an issue.”

“Yes, yes, I know. Let me have my moment. I’m more concerned that I’ll probably have to show up for classes and … ugh … meet people. I vote we make someone the ‘father’ at the new house and the rest of you become my classmates.”

Various faces went unhappily pale.

“What,” Mukuro said flatly.

“It’s a fantastic idea!” he enthused. “If I’m going to suffer, well…”

“I think you might be taking this whole family togetherness thing a bit too far,” Chikusa said.

He shook his head. “Oh, c’mon. It’s an entirely new town, a new school, new people…”

“How about a compromise?” Ken suggested. “Draw names from a hat. Three people are students with you, the rest are on watch. It might seem a bit weird for seven new second years to all show up at once.”

“I’m game for that,” he said, “and look, if it turns out to be the usual drag with nothing of interest happening, we bail and send clones.” He raised his brows and looked around at his family members.

One by one they sighed and nodded.

The drawing was done and his new classmates would be Hayato, Sin, and Mukuro.

His twins departed once that was decided, off to find and purchase a home for them in Inaba.

“I would make a joke about what could go wrong in a sleepy Japanese town,” he said, “but we all know the answer to that, don’t we.”

He was greeted with laughter for that.

“I hope Daemon remembered to drop off that note? Because I haven’t even looked in on Inaba, so I can’t even open a window. Damn it.”

Sin enfolded him in a hug and planted a lingering kiss on his cheek. “Calm yourself, tesoro. We have a few months yet. We’re barely into November. There’s time enough to get in contact with Caim, see what he would prefer, and handle things. We can still be checking into potential replacement chefs, just in case. We could start by going over the regulars at Kaiten. If they don’t suit, perhaps they might have someone in mind, even if we aren’t asking directly. Or we advertise, if it comes to that.”

He heaved a sigh. “I admit, I’m a bit rattled. I’d gotten used to Nana…”

“Appearing to care?” Mukuro suggested.

“Something like that. Now it seems like she’s found her fairy tale and…” He sighed. “I honestly thought this one was different. I mean, she is, to a degree. I can’t deny that. But… In the end, I’m just an embarrassment for her. A reminder of her mistake. And it hurts. Admittedly, I’ve never tried very hard to care, so I’m being a bit hypocritical. Still… We can’t help how we feel, right?”

His twins came back with the news that a house had been located, not far from where his uncle resided. A window was opened so they could see the place and approve.

“It’ll be a bit of a squeeze, but we still have trunk if anyone wants more space. I don’t see why not.”

No one brought up any objections, so the twins nodded.

“We left a message for Caim. Hopefully he’ll get back to us quickly. We’ll move ahead with the house, then. The usual. Convince them to sell it to us and fuck off. We can be in place ahead of time, have it arranged for our happy new students to be enrolled—” Daemon smirked when Sin, Mukuro, and Hayato each grimaced. “—and ensure you four all get into the same class.”

“How is that going to work, anyway?” he muttered. “You have to test into high school. They’ve got standards, usually.”

Xeul shook his head. “Inaba is too small. There’s just the one. The fees aren’t too dear, either. From what I could see, they split the classes based on prior performance. So, you’d likely be in the first or second.”

Tsuna’s brow furrowed. “First or second?”

“Ah, they don’t use letters, not like here. They’re not 2-A or 3-B. It’s 2-1 or 3-2.”

“Right,” he said slowly. “Okay. I would prefer we get into the same classroom, yes.”

“We’ll make sure the records we fake into existence will cover that, and ensure you four are together. We’ll shoot for 2-2, just so you aren’t all academically inclined in a potentially detrimental way.”

He nodded. On the higher end without being the brightest. It seemed a safer road to walk. And all else failing, clones sent in their places could easily handle that level of work and pretense.

A week later word arrived from Caim. He was perfectly willing to keep Kaiten as a source of income, but had no one particular in mind as replacements. He would leave that to them. That being the case, Samsara immediately set to finding a new chef that Tsuna could train in the time they had left in Namimori, and someone competent and trustworthy to take over the accounting.

Xeul and Sin handled finding an accountant, while Tsuna and Mukuro tracked down a chef. Nana, when informed of the upcoming changes due to her planned departure, just smiled and nodded and said she would happily allow the new chef to shadow her on the job until that time.

‘I should bloody well hope so,’ he muttered in his head. He would still be the one doing most of the work. He himself was not scheduled to depart for Inaba until much closer to the start of the school year. Nana had decided he was old enough to handle himself while the sale of the house was being arranged, and had made noises about getting a neighbor woman drafted in to check on him occasionally.

Tsuna had promptly nixed that idea by pointing out the next door neighbor, where his closest friends lived, would be happy to host him, and the father there would keep an eye on the house until it was sold. Nana was happy with that, especially after a little encouragement of the Daemon kind.

One of the sources they tapped for information (not that he was aware of it) was Tsuyoshi and his wife, in the event that either knew of a decent chef (better than decent, really) who was open to the idea of work. Worst case scenario? They would import one from out of town and convince them to purchase Nana’s house. All nice and tidy.

As it was, Tsuyoshi did know of someone, from Kyoto, who was tired of tourists and wanted a more intimate, local lifestyle. Specifically, his wife’s cousin’s husband’s niece, who worked and trained at a restaurant there, but was more than willing to expand her repertoire and not have to deal with the drama queen she called a head chef.

Tsuna promptly moved into the house next door and gave up his room for the niece, one Inagaki Junko, who would undoubtedly take over Nana’s room once his mother flitted off to be with her one true love in Tokyo.

March rolled around (Tsuna had sent a clone to the wedding, having washed his hands of Nana, again) and Tsuna received a letter from his uncle, letting him know he would pick him up at Yasoinaba Station on the eleventh, at four o’clock.

He was all set to begin his “new” life.


	2. λ21: 02: 11-13 April 2011

## λ21  
02: 11-13 April 2011

####  11 April 2011, Monday

Tsuna blinked a few times in confusion. He had been sitting on the train one moment, feeling bored and sleepy, and the next he was sitting in an absurdly spacious limousine. He could see through the windows that outside was dark and foggy. Inside was a study in blue and black. A woman was there, blonde, imperious-looking, dressed in blue, and also a man.

He was quite short, balding, and had a nose that came straight out of anime, as well as eyebrows that looked as if the artist had gotten a little carried away. The man’s appearance suggested evil dictator, one who did not get enough sleep if one were to judge by his bloodshot eyes.

“Ah… It seems we have a guest with an intriguing destiny,” the man said, chucking. “My name is Igor… I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… It is a room that only those bound by a ‘contract’ may enter… It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future. Now then, why don’t you introduce yourself…?”

Tsuna’s first thought that was the man was infected with a bad case of Ellipsis Syndrome. Igor’s name alone was bizarre considering they were in Japan, and the man’s voice was oddly high. It reminded him a bit of Voldemort, though far less openly psychotic.

“Shouldn’t you already know?” he said dryly. “I am Dojima Tsunayoshi.”

“Hm, I see. Now, let’s take a look into your future, shall we? Do you believe in fortune telling?” Igor did not appear to require an answer, as he kept right on going. “Each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different…”

‘Wouldn’t that imply that the future cannot be accurately viewed with such cards?’ he wondered. ‘Or that it’s so mutable even people like Aria see a multitude of possibilities, rather than a definitive path?’

“Life itself follows the same principles, doesn’t it?” Igor continued as he dealt cards into an arrangement, then flipped one of them. “Hm… The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent.

“The card indicating the future beyond that is…” Igor flipped another card. “The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents ‘hesitation’ and ‘mystery’… Very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you.”

Igor looked at him directly. “In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny… If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen.

“Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you.” Igor waved a gloved hand toward his companion. “This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself.”

She turned golden eyes on him. “My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you through your journey.”

“We shall attend to the details another time. Until then, farewell.”

With a start he was seeing the view out the train window again.

“What is it?” Sin asked. “You look a bit weirded out for having just woken from a nap.”

“I get the feeling,” he said slowly, “that our mysterious shuffler is up to something again. I just had a very peculiar dream. I’ll see if I can ‘share’ it later. There’s far too many people around.”

Daemon’s brow went up. “Mind if I take a peek?”

He shook his head. “Of course not.” He felt his brother poking around a moment later, swiftly latching on to his dream.

Thirty seconds later Daemon was sporting a very confused expression. “What the hell?” he muttered.

Tsuna was briefly distracted by a blue butterfly that had no business being there fluttering by and that, oddly, no one else appeared to notice, but turned his attention back to his brother. “Thoughts?”

“For one, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for this universe to spring something on us. I had been thinking it was just more of the same, but in a… Like taking a breather. Simple, uncomplicated, and not stressful. But now, with that dream as a portent of things to come… As for the dream itself, I can’t say I like the idea of anyone getting into your head like that. It reminds me far too much of Checkers’ ability to drag people in via the subconscious.”

That was a good point, he thought. Checkers could drag people, the unconscious, into a shared dream. Of course, so could his Mists, once they’d fucked around with the concept for a while and tested it on defects. Tsuna could probably do the same, but given that his control was a bit shaky when it came to meddling with people’s brains, he’d never bothered to try.

“Which makes me wonder if…” He manifested a Bounding Box, just to be on the safe side. “Are we dealing with a Mist, or something else entirely?”

When the train pulled into the station his family split from him. Half immediately went to the new house. His Mists opened windows on him, and Mukuro and Xeul then left. Daemon would stay behind invisibly, at least until he could not easily follow.

As Tsuna waited outside, on the steps of the station, he briefly reflected on the news report showing on the screens at the station in Okina City. A city council secretary, one Namatame Taro, had brought shame to himself by being caught having an affair. ‘It’s amazing,’ he thought, projecting to his brother, ‘how people just love a good scandal. They tsk and shake their heads, but they revel in it.’

‘Most people are hypocrites in one way or another,’ Daemon replied. ‘Most people are very good at lying to themselves, at denying their very human and primal desires. People dress things up with pretty clothes and faces and manners, but underneath it all, we’re a kind of savage at the core.’

‘I wonder sometimes how much is animal instinct and how much is … I dunno, the results of evolution, the two warring. I know I certainly feel no regret from removing defects from the gene pool.’

‘And yet some would say we are deserving of the same for so many murders.’

Tsuna snorted. ‘I’ve died how many times now? I rather doubt the one in charge minds our actions or I expect we’d have been spanked well before now, each and every time. Every life leading up to the solution taught me something new, and eventually gained me a proper family. Well, _most_ lives teach us something new, but that might just be so we don’t get abysmally bored.’

“Hey! Over here!” a man called.

Tsuna looked toward the voice to see a man around his mother’s age, with short, dark hair, sporting a five o’clock shadow. He was wearing a suit, but the jacket was flipped over one shoulder and held there with his left hand.

Once Tsuna trotted down the steps and a bit closer the man—his uncle—said, “Well, you’re more handsome in person than in your photo. Welcome to Inaba. I’m Dojima Ryotaro. I’ll be looking after you. Let’s see… I’m your mother’s younger brother … and that about sums it up.”

Tsuna bowed before saying, “It’s been a long time.” He barely remembered, but then, he hadn't spent much time poking at the memories his body had prior to his awakening.

“So formal!” Dojima chuckled. “You’ve really grown. I still remember when you were in diapers. This here’s my daughter,” he said, briefly resting a hand on the little girl’s shoulder. “Come on, Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin.”

Nanako looked distinctly uncomfortable and shy, unwilling to look at him directly and sticking very close to her father. “… ’lo,” she said quietly.

Dojima chuckled again. “What’re you so shy for?” he asked, then winced when the girl poked him. “Well, then, let’s get going. My car’s over there.”

‘I will see you in town, brother,’ Daemon sent. ‘Windows are following, just in case.’

‘See you there.’

The ride in wasn’t too bad, but the station was clearly on the outskirts. His uncle stopped at a petrol station in what looked like a shopping district, and Nanako shot off to the bathroom as soon as she slipped out of the car (though the attendant was a bit condescending in directing her to where it was, and Nanako, in return, a bit snippy).

“Are you taking a trip?” the attendant asked.

“No, we just went to pick him up. He just moved here from the big city.”

Tsuna blinked, wondering how Namimori counted as a “big city” when it probably wasn’t that much bigger than Inaba.

“The city, huh…?”

“Fill up my car, please. Regular’s fine.”

“Right away, o-kyaku-sama!”

Dojima wandered off out of the way and lit up, which Tsuna found irritating, especially as the man had such a young daughter.

“Are you in high school?” the attendant asked. Tsuna couldn’t actually tell what gender they were, but they had odd, longish grey hair, appeared to be in their early twenties, and had such a slender build that he couldn’t get any clues from that either.

“Does it surprise you to see how little there is out here? There’s so little to do, I’m sure you’ll get bored fast. You’ll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs. Speaking of which, we’re actually looking for part-time help right now. Give it some thought, why don’t you? We don’t mind if you’re a student. But, oh, I should finish this up.” The attendant nodded and patted him on the shoulder as they walked past.

His immediate reaction was a sense of outrage that a complete stranger would touch him, but that was quickly subsumed by a distinct sense of queasiness. His family must have noticed considering that one of the invisible windows following him flickered for a moment.

He was distracted by Nanako returning. “…Are you okay?” she asked. “Did you get carsick? You don’t look too good…”

He also felt a little dizzy, but Dojima swept by to pay for the petrol, and then they were off again.

The Dojima residence looked like a million other family homes in Japan, with precious little space between the front and the concrete fence that marked the property line. He expected there would be a larger area out back.

Once inside he immediately saw that it did not share a floor plan with the house in Namimori. The ground floor was taken up mostly by the kitchen and living area. A hallway off to the side was hiding the staircase to the first floor, and more than likely Dojima’s room (mostly based on the shape and size of the dormers he had seen before coming in).

Dinner was taken at the low table in the living area, which required them to sit on cushions. There was a television in the corner, but it remained off, and long curtains hid what he expected were sliding glass doors leading to the back yard. Someone had prepared by purchasing sushi earlier in the day, and that along with juice was their meal.

“All right, let’s have a toast,” Dojima said, then lifted his glass before taking a sip. “So, Tokyo, huh? It must have been a bit of a shock, but getting stuck in a place like this because of… It’s rough being a kid.”

Tsuna smiled politely.

“Well, it’s just me and Nanako here, so it’ll be nice having someone else around. So long as you’re here, you’re part of the family, so make yourself at home.”

The polite smiled slid into a serene one at what he perceived as an insult. “Thank you for your kindness.”

“C’mon, there’s no need to be so formal. Look, you’re making Nanako all tense.”

Nanako looked more like she was embarrassed.

“Well, anyway… Let’s eat,” Dojima said and had just picked up a piece of sushi with his hashi when the muffled sound of a phone ringing emanated from the man’s jacket, which had been draped over the couch behind him. “Ugh… Who’s calling at this hour?” the man complained as he fetched out his phone.

“Dojima speaking. …Yeah? …I see. …So where is it? …All right, I’m on my way.” Dojima ended the call and muttered, “Looks like I made the right choice to skip the booze…” He sighed and got up, grabbing his jacket as he rose. “Sorry, but I gotta go take care of some business. Go ahead and eat without me. I don’t know how late I’ll be. Nanako, you help him, okay?”

“…Okay.”

Dojima slipped his jacket on and headed for the door, but paused after he opened it. “Nanako, it’s started raining. What did you do with the laundry?”

“I already brought it in,” she said.

“All right. Well, I’m off.” He was out the door a second later and closing it behind him.

Nanako immediately produced a remote and turned on the television. The news was on.

“—for this week. Next, let’s take a look at the hourly breakdown of tomorrow’s weather.”

‘Hourly!?’

“With storm clouds moving in from the west, expect rain throughout the day tomorrow in most areas.”

“Let’s eat,” Nanako said softly, then picked up her hashi.

His mind went blank for a moment trying to figure out what, if anything, to say to the girl. “…What does your dad do?” he finally asked.

Nanako glanced at him briefly. “He … investigates stuff. Like crime scenes. My dad’s a detective.”

“And now for the local news.”

Nanako turned her attention back to the TV.

“City council secretary Namatame Taro is under fire for an alleged relationship with a female reporter. His wife, enka ballad sensation Hiiragi Misuzu, revealed to this station that she will likely pursue damages.” Images of both were briefly displayed for the viewing audience. “In response, Eye Television has decided to cancel all of announcer Yamano Mayumi’s televised appearances. Until allegations of an affair with Namatame-san are resolved, she’ll remain off the air and out of the public eye.”

“…This is boring,” Nanako said, then brightened up when a commercial came on.

“At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day’s great at your Junes!”

Nanako started to sing along with the jingle.

Tsuna was honestly a bit sad seeing the girl only perk up for a store jingle, and that a girl her age had been left home, alone but for a stranger, with no idea when her father would return.

Once they were done eating Nanako showed him to the room prepared for him, one of the two up there, and wished him a good evening. He opened a window on her the second her back was turned just to see what she would do, which turned out to be going back downstairs to tidy up.

“I’m starting to feel shades of Durzkaban prior to my awakening, except Dojima isn’t abusive,” he muttered as he took in the room.

One of the windows following him flicked into view, showing his family.

“She’s very self-reliant,” Xeul said. “She has to be. She even does most of the shopping.”

Tsuna sighed and shook his head. “Well, I live here now. There’s no reason why I can’t take up some of the slack. Shopping, cooking…”

“Much as I hate the idea, I don’t think we should be popping in there anytime soon,” Sin said. “Sorry, tesoro, but it looks like you’ll be sleeping alone for a while.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Tomorrow is a school day. If I don’t meet you on the way, I guess … at the gates?”

Sin nodded, along with Hayato and Mukuro.

The window winked out, so he looked around the room again, knowing full well at least one of his twins would be taking a shift that night to keep an eye on him. Boxes were set against one wall, ones his mother had shipped ahead of him, which contained clothing and various other things.

The futon had been set up for him, which was thoughtful of Dojima—or Nanako, at her father’s direction. He rolled his eyes and resolved to start handling things a mere child should not. And he didn’t much care at the moment if anyone felt insulted by it.

He also resolved to strongly consider setting up runic wards on the house, if only for Nanako’s sake. Tsuna set about putting things away, then got ready for bed and settled in.

####  12 April 2011, Tuesday

Everything around him was shrouded in white fog. He could barely see ten feet in front of him. The ground beneath him was fashioned from cubes, red with black edges and sides, and they seemed to form a pathway.

Tsuna wasn’t the least bit inclined to try to step off it and wander blindly into that fog, so he followed the path before him, wondering just what the fuck was going on this time.

“Do you seek the truth?”

He paused. The voice was androgynous and echoed all around him, which made the origin impossible to determine.

“If it’s the truth you desire, come and find me.”

‘What I wouldn’t give for my brother to be hooked into my brain right now,’ he thought.

Up ahead was a peculiar sort of door, or portal. It consisted of red and black square … rings, like square picture frames framing each other in sequence, the colours alternating. He could sense something beyond it, something that made him feel vaguely uneasy.

The fog was even thicker on the other side, and even the ground was lost to it. It was like walking in an endless cloud. Up ahead was the barest sight of a figure, as if someone was using a faulty Disillusionment charm, or was made of more of that fog, just thick enough to stand out.

“So… You are the one pursuing me. Hm… Try all you like.”

Tsuna’s eyes narrowed, doing his damnedest to see through the illusion—or what he assumed was illusion. The figure got slightly more visible.

“I see… Indeed, you possess an interesting quality. But … you will not catch me so easily. If what you seek is ‘truth’, then your search will be even harder.”

Tsuna frowned when the fog abruptly thickened and he lost sight of the figure. He realized at that point that he was wearing a set of brass knuckles.

“Everyone sees what they want to… And the fog only deepens. Will we meet again…? At a place other than here… Hm… I look forward to it.”

Everything went black.

He could hear someone’s voice. Nanako? Tsuna opened his eyes to see his new room.

“Whoever is watching, open the window,” he murmured, and sat up as Daemon’s face appeared. “Check my memory of the … whatever … I just had.”

Daemon’s brow went up, but he nodded, and Tsuna shortly felt his brother rifling around in his head again. “What the fuck,” Daemon said flatly.

Tsuna shrugged. “Inform the others. We can show them later. I need to get ready.”

“I will do so. Since you’re awake…”

He nodded. “Hopefully I’ll see you this afternoon. For now, breakfast.”

By the time he got downstairs he was annoyed to see that Nanako had already made breakfast and had it waiting for him. _Why_ she had made fried eggs, bacon, and toast was completely beyond him.

“Good morning,” she said as she set her plate on the kitchen table.

“Good morning,” he replied. “I had not expected you to make breakfast, but thank you,” he said as he sat down. “Would it upset you if I cooked meals at times?” He looked around and saw that his uncle was nowhere to be seen.

Nanako shook her head, though she looked a bit dubious. She must have realized why he was looking around, as she said, “There was some kind of trouble. You’re starting school today, right? My school’s on the way, so … let’s go together.”

He smiled at her and nodded, then began his meal. “Is it all right if I call you Nanako-chan?”

She nodded after a moment.

“I usually go by Tsuna. Tsunayoshi is just too long for everyday life. Where do people usually do their grocery shopping? I like to cook, so…”

She brightened up. “Junes!”

He nodded and had a bite of egg on toast. “I will have to investigate. Hopefully they carry plenty of fresh goods. Do you like to cook, too?”

“Um… I don’t know how to cook much. I can toast bread … and cook sunny-side up eggs in the morning. Dad can’t cook, so I buy dinner.”

“Well, you let me know if there’s something you’d like. Now that I live here, I should help, too. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.”

She nodded again, back to looking dubious.

They finished up, dishes were quickly washed and set to dry in the rack, and they were off. Part-way down the street Nanako handed him a key, saying her father had left it with her for him—which said a lot about how often the man was absent—and led him to the flood plain.

She pointed out where they would part, saying, “You go straight from here, across the river. Turn right on the other side, then left onto the first street. You should see other students headed there by then. My school’s this way. Bye.” She quickly walked away, not waiting for a response.

“Gonna take time for her to warm up to me,” he muttered, and started walking again. It was fairly obvious when he was supposed to turn, so he continued on, various buildings lining the street, and he deftly avoided a young man on a bicycle who was going a touch too fast and lost traction due to the rain, and ended up crashing. He just kept following other people his age in uniforms.

Tsuna was relieved to see the school up ahead, if only because his family was there. He sped up and was shortly being greeted by Sin, Hayato, and Mukuro. “Oh happy day, we get to go to school,” he said dryly.

Sin rolled his eyes. “Let’s go let them know we’re here.”

Not too much later they were escorted by a secretary to Class 2-2 and abandoned to their fate.

“Awright, shut your traps!” said the hilariously ugly teacher. “I’m Morooka Kinshiro, your homeroom teacher from today forward! First things first! Just ’cause it’s spring doesn’t mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. Long as I’m around, you students are going to be pure as the driven snow!

“Now I hate wasting my time, but I’d better introduce the transfer students. These sad sacks have been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday’s garbage. And they’re as much losers here as I know they were there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on them! Tell ’em your names, and make it quick.”

Tsuna’s brow went up; it was almost like being back to dealing with Nezu. Being the leader he stepped forward first and bowed. “Dojima Tsunayoshi. Please take care of me.”

Sin went next, introducing himself as Rokudo Sen, then Hayato as Rokudo Hayato, and Mukuro as himself.

“Now listen up!” Morooka said. “This town is miles away from your big city perverts and assholes, in more ways than one. You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let alone abusing them! But what do I know… It’s not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast. Every time I turn my back, you’re fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and your my-places…”

Tsuna zoned out, mostly because the idiot kept droning on about the proverbial good old days. He gave the man credit for appearing to care about his students, and wanting them to be safe, but he was clearly too far removed from that age to understand just how wrong of an impact his words would make.

“Excuse me!” a brown-haired girl called out, almost desperately. “Is it okay if the transfer students sit down? There’s open seats here.”

Morooka snapped out of his rant. “Huh? Yeah, sure. Hear that? Your seats are over there. So hurry up and siddown already!”

Tsuna exchanged a commiserating look with his family and took one of the two seats closer to the front, mostly so that someone could protect his back.

The brown-haired girl leaned over to whisper, “He’s the worst, huh? Rotten luck for you guys to get stuck in this class. Well, we’ll just have to hang in there for a year.”

“Sucks to be a transfer student, ending up in King Moron’s class on the first morning here,” one of the male students whispered to his neighbor.

“Yeah, he won’t think twice about suspending someone if you get on his bad side,” was whispered back. “Then again, we’re all in the same boat.”

“Shut your traps!” Morooka bellowed. “I’m taking roll, and I damn well expect you to respond in an orderly manner!”

Tsuna zoned out, only briefly paying attention when his own name was called so he could say, “Present,” and was surprised when Morooka finished up with, “That’s all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow.”

Students started to shift restlessly, waiting to be given permission to leave, but stilled when a chime was heard over the school intercom, then, “Attention, all teachers. Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice.”

Morooka scowled. “Hrnh. You heard the announcement. Don’t go anywhere until you hear otherwise.” He departed, still scowling.

The brown-haired girl, Satonaka Chie, made an annoyed sound. “He’s seriously getting on my nerves.”

Tsuna had just turned toward Sin when sirens started sounding in the distance. A number of students dashed over to the windows.

“Did something happen? Don’t those sirens sound really close?” one boy said, peering out through rain-dampened glass. “Ugh, I can’t see a damn thing. Frickin’ fog…”

“Yeah, like every time it rains lately, it gets all foggy,” the boy next to him complained.

“Hey, did you hear?” a girl added. “I hear a paparazzi’s looking all over for that announcer.”

“Oh, yeah,” the second boy said, going up on his toes as he tried to get a better view. “You mean Yamano Mayumi, right? I heard some guys spotted her at the shopping district.”

“I heard that, too,” said the first.

“Are you serious!?” The second boy turned and eyed a girl with long black hair and a red cardigan. “H-hey, Yukiko-san. Mind if I ask you something? Is it true that announcer’s staying at your family’s inn?”

The girl dropped her gaze demurely. “I can’t discuss such things.”

“Y-yeah, I guess not.” He went back to staring out the window.

Tsuna’s brow went up as he stared at Sin, then murmured sarcastically in Italian, “Isn’t this fun?”

Chie heaved a sigh. “Sheesh, how much longer is this gonna take?”

“There’s no telling,” Yukiko said.

“If only we could have left before the announcement came on. By the way, did you try what I told you the other day? You know… That thing about rainy nights.”

“Oh… No, not yet. Sorry.”

“Ah, that’s okay. Well … it’s just, I heard a guy in the class next door yell something like, ‘My soulmate is Yamano, the announcer!’ ”

The intercom chimed again, which caused everyone to go silent.

“Attention, all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatched around the school zone. Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school grounds. Do not disturb the police officers. Head directly home. I repeat…”

“Incident!?”

The noise level abruptly spiked again.

Tsuna got up and grabbed his bag, preparing to go. If they were leaving after barely having been at the school for an hour, they could get an early start on other things.

Except, of course, Chie got up and immediately grabbed his attention. “Hey, you guys are new. You probably don’t know your way around yet. Why don’t you come with us. Oh, right. I’m Satonaka Chie. Nice to meet you. And this is Amagi Yukiko.”

“Oh, nice to meet you all. I’m sorry that this is so sudden…”

“C’mon, don’t apologize like that. It makes me look like I got no upbringing.”

A serene smile slid into place. “Nice to meet you both. Dojima Tsunayoshi, but I prefer Tsuna.”

His family had just finished with the usual pleasantries when Bike-Accident-From-Earlier came into view, bearing a nervous expression. “Uh, um, Satonaka-san…? This was really awesome,” he said, holding out a plastic case. “Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see. And… I’m really sorry!” he cried. “It was an accident! Please just have mercy until my next paycheck! Seeya, thanks!” The boy started to back away.

“Stop right there!” Chie exclaimed. “What did you do to my DVD!?” And then she hauled off and kicked him in the groin.

The boy went down with an agonized roll of his eyes and a loud groan.

Chie cracked open the case and scowled. “What the!? I can’t believe this! It is completely cracked. My ‘Trial of the Dragon’—!”

“I think mine’s cracked, too,” the boy rasped out. “C-critical hit to the nads…”

“A-are you all right?” Yukiko asked.

Chie scoffed. “He’s fine. Let’s ditch him and go home.”

The two girls blithely tagged along as Tsuna and his family departed, with Chie insistent on being something of a tour guide along the way—and he had a sneaking suspicion she wanted to ask questions about “the big city”.

At the gate they were stopped by a strange-looking young man who did not wear a Yasogami uniform, though he was dressed in a school uniform. It was possible he went to a private school, or one in the next town over.

“You’re Yuki, right?” the boy said, his soulless-looking, fish-like eyes and creepy monotone making it a surreal experience to witness. “Y-you want to go hang out somewhere?”

“What? Wh-who are you?”

Tsuna ignored the gossips that appeared as if in response to the “juicy” scene.

“Um, s-so… Are you coming or not?”

Yukiko shook her head. “I—I’m not.”

“…Fine!” Fish-Eyes scowled and ran off in a huff.

“Wh-what did he want from me?”

Chie gawked. “What did he want…? Obviously, he was asking you out on a date.”

“Huh? Really?”

“You had no clue? Sheesh… But then again, that was way over the top. It was creepy how he called you Yuki all of a sudden. I’ve never even seen the guy before. Where did he come from?”

“Yo, Yukiko-san. Turned down another lovelorn fool?” Bike-Accident-From-Before came into view, pushing his bike along. “Man, you’re cruel. You got me the same way last year.”

“I don’t recall doing that.”

“Whoa, you serious? So then, you wanna hang out some time!?”

“…I’d rather not.”

Bike-Accident-From-Before sighed. “That’ll teach me to get my hopes up. Anyway, you better not pick on the transfer students too much.”

“We’re just curious, is all! C’mon, we better get going. People are staring.”

Once away from the gates and the majority of other students Chie said, “So… What caused all of you to move here? I mean… This town is…”

“Our father was tired of living in Tokyo, wanted a quieter place,” Sin said.

“My mother just got remarried,” he said, keeping to the lie. “She and her husband went on a month-long honeymoon and will be settling in Tokyo. I came here to live with her brother.”

“Oh, wait, you’re _not_ from a big city?”

He shook his head. “No, a town not much bigger than this one. Seemed rather more attractive to me than such a massive place. I’ve spent time in Kobe and Osaka and Kyoto, so… Yeah. Things can be far too hectic in a larger city. Besides, my mother deserves her happiness. She’s been widowed since before I was even born, so…”

Chie pulled a face of dismay for probing. “Ah…”

“It’s fine,” he said with another shake of his head.

“Well… There’s not a lot here, but we do have, um—there is something from Mt Yasogami… I think our dyed clothes or pottery or something is kinda famous. Oh wait, there’s the Amagi Inn! Yukiko’s family runs it. It’s the pride of Inaba!”

“Huh? It’s … just an old inn,” Yukiko said, a look of distracted confusion on her face.

“Oh, no way,” Chie protested. “It’s been in all sorts of magazines as a hidden treasure. It’s a great inn! It’s been going for generations, and Yukiko here is going to take over someday. The inn usually attracts a lot of visitors to Inaba. It pretty much keeps this town going,” she said earnestly.

“…I don’t think that’s entirely true.”

“So, tell me. You think Yukiko’s cute, huh?”

Tsuna looked at Chie in disbelief, then smiled serenely. “I wouldn’t know. I prefer men.”

Chie blinked. “Eh? That’s a real thing?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, what’s that?” Yukiko asked.

Up ahead was a blocked off area. Police, police cars, tarps…

“So that high schooler left school early, and as she came down this street…” said a lady who looked like a housewife on her way back from shopping.

“Wow. Who could imagine _that_ hanging from an antenna?” Another housewife.

One of them must be the mother of the young boy who was staring over the barricade.

“I wanted to see it, too.”

Tsuna frowned at Shopping-Housewife.

“Uh, you got here too late. The police and fire department took it down just a moment ago.”

“Well, I think it’s terrifying. I can’t believe a dead body showed up around here.”

“Wait,” Chie said, her eyes going wide. “What did she just say? A dead body!?”

Tsuna didn’t think that required an answer, and was just about to move along, when of course Dojima showed up in his official capacity.

“Hey, what’re you all doing here?”

“Just passing by. The school let us go after warning us about…” He trailed off and glanced over at the scene.

“Huh. I should have figured that would happen. That damn principal. We told him not to let people through here.”

“…You know this guy?” Chie asked.

“I’m Detective Dojima, his guardian. Uh… Well, how should I say this… I hope you get along with him. But you should all really get moving, and go straight home. This is no place for kids.”

Tsuna was about to again move on, but a younger man barreled by, dressed similarly to Dojima, and was very noisily sick.

“Adachi! How long are you going to act like a rookie!? You want to be sent back to the central office?”

“I-I’m sorry… Nngh…”

Dojima sighed. “Go wash your face. We need to gather information!”

The girls finally started moving.

“Was this what that announcement was about?” Chie murmured to Yukiko.

“What do they mean? Hanging from the antenna?”

“Hey, Yukiko…? Why don’t we go to Junes some other time?”

“Good idea.”

Chie turned to them. “All right, then. We’re taking off. Starting tomorrow, neighbor, let’s do our best!”

He watched as they wandered away and heaved a sigh. “Kami-sama. We’re not even here a day and shit happens.”

“Unfortunately, you’re going to have to go straight home,” Mukuro said. “I get the feeling if Dojima-san finds out you didn’t…”

“Yeah,” he said as they started walking again. “And I don’t think he’d appreciate you guys coming with me, not this early on. I’m going to get out my laptop when I get there. I’ll just overlay the screen and talk that way. Or I step over, and then turn back. Or I wait until later and do the same.”

“Well, whatever you do,” Sin said, “start by anchoring some protection. We can talk about something more permanent after?”

“Also yeah. Okay, I need to go this way. We’ll talk in a bit.”

Back at the Dojima residence he immediately got to work on creating an anchored Bounding Box for the place. Probably the only reason he had not thought to do so the night before was because he knew his family had been standing watch to guard his sleep.

After that he went downstairs to begin preparing lunch, having decided to make ginger pork. Nanako wandered in when he was nearly done and shot him a surprised look, and after putting her bag away came back to quietly ask, “Can I help?”

“You can check the rice and the steamer,” he said as he worked the wok. “Or get plates ready, whichever. There’s enough for the two of us. I didn’t think your dad would be back for lunch.”

She nodded and set to work, fetching out a step stool to give herself added height. It was only a few minutes later that they were seated and eating, and she adopted another surprised look after the first bite.

“Let me know if there’s anything in particular you don’t like, so I can avoid them any time I cook,” he said. “How often does the shopping get done?”

She nodded and said, “I go once a week.”

He blinked. “How do you manage to carry so much food on your own?”

“A wagon. Can you teach me how to make this?”

Tsuna smiled. “Sure. As a bonus, it’s not a difficult recipe. If cooking talent runs in the family, you’ll be a master chef in no time.”

Nanako looked dubious again, but there was a hint of a smile peeking out.

After lunch he retreated to his room and opened his laptop, then moved a window into place over the screen, open to the other house. A quick whistle saw his family clustering around their side of the window.

“Hola!” he cried happily, deciding to speak in Spanish so that Nanako couldn’t understand anything she inadvertently overheard, especially as he had left his door open to avoid the appearance of trying to hide something. “So, a death already, and we’ve barely even arrived.”

Xeul shrugged. “We’ll see if it develops into anything interesting. I admit, finding a corpse hanging off an antenna is a new one for me, but…”

“You set up the Bounding Box, I assume?” Sin asked.

He nodded. “The moment I got back. And I’m planning to train Nanako-chan up to be a master chef, if possible. Girl could go far in life and she seems like a sweetheart, though she’s understandably shy right now. I am not at all happy just how much time she’s on her own, but it’s not like I’m in any position to interfere much.”

“I was thinking of doing a little browsing tonight,” Daemon said, “and get all the teachers’ plans for the year. That way you four can get all that homework done ahead of time. And with your memories, quizzes and tests should never be a problem.”

“If it turns out to be as easy as I expect,” Hayato said, “we can just send in clones on most days and only show up for tests.”

Tsuna nodded. “Well, otherwise, business as usual. Eyes in the normal places, at least for semi-regular updates. I’m more curious about these weird dreams I keep having. Which reminds me, I need to pull copies of those memories so you can all see them. Hang on.”

He pulled two vials from storage and set to making copies, then sealed them and shifted both through the window. “It’s deeply unfortunate that I won’t be able to cook meals for you guys, but I expect you’ll manage somehow.”

His family all frowned, but nodded. “Better to ensure no accidents happen because a six year old girl is using appliances she really ought not to be. A toaster is one thing, but even those can catch on fire and burn a house down. That she was frying eggs and bacon, well…”

“Again, shades of Durzkaban, minus the abuse. Or at least, intentional neglect. I expect that come next shopping day, I can lay in enough supplies to not only keep myself and my cousin adequately fed, but store enough to make bentos for our lunches.”

Chikusa shook his head. “Let us buy the extras. You could shift here, make them up, then turn back. I should think it’d be suspicious to begin with, you making meals for extra people and the girl wondering where all these ingredients are coming from.”

“Good point. I’ll do that instead. Hopefully we’ll be able to properly scout the town tomorrow, to know where best to purchase things. I understand there’s a Junes here, but the family-owned places might be better in the long run.”

“Well, since there doesn’t seem to be much we can do today,” Mukuro said, “I’m going to go do a bit of shopping, then go play video games to pass the time. We’ll see you in the morning? I’d say for breakfast, but I expect you’ll be making sure your cousin is seen to. She’s just a child.”

“Yes. All right. I will step over first thing and see about making bentos for lunch, then come back here and make breakfast. Are we meeting at the gates, or…?”

Sin shook his head. “We can meet you on the flood plain, walk the rest of the way in with you.”

“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning, then. Sleep tight. Oh, and I’ll prepare an anchor.”

Everyone nodded, so he dismissed the window and looked around again. The television up against one wall was ancient, in his opinion, but then so was the one downstairs. He’d have preferred a flat-screen, but that would have to wait until he could check out shopping opportunities. He expected, though he would have to get one of his Mists to double-check, that Dojima would have no idea just how much money Tsuna might have, and they could always fiddle with his brains just a tiny bit to not ask questions like that.

He heaved a sigh at having to live without his family, without his lover, and went downstairs to inventory the cooking supplies so he knew what he had to work with for that evening, and then to find out where the washing machine was hiding. After that he investigated the exterior.

The back yard was fairly narrow, surprisingly enough, and one side yard—if he could even call it that—was only wide enough to handle Dojima’s car. The other side was set up to dry laundry, the cords low enough that Nanako would only need a step stool to manage. All in all, the house was rather bare and lacked in personality, which was depressing after years and years of living in places brimming with memories.

Nanako wandered back from wherever she had disappeared to and sat down to watch TV.

“Any thoughts on dinner?” he asked her.

She gave a little shrug. “I usually just make an egg or something, with rice. Or a pre-made meal.”

“How about oyakodon? The stuff for that is here.”

“Um… Okay.”

“Have you ever made it before?”

She shook her head.

“Would you like to help? Start to learn how? Or does you father not want you touching any knives just yet?”

“He doesn’t like it.”

Tsuna nodded. “Then you can watch, if you like. You can still start to learn that way, if you’re interested. Does your dad get home at any particular time…?”

She shrugged again. “It depends.”

“Okay. I’ll make enough for three, and if he’s not here in time… We’ll figure it out then. I’ll get started a little before five.”

Nanako nodded and turned back to the TV, so Tsuna wandered upstairs again to play a video game on his laptop. Maybe once he had replaced the television in there he could hook up a console or two.

They had dinner in the living area rather than sit at the table, mostly so they could watch TV as they ate. Nanako had been very attentive during the whole process, and helped by starting the rice.

The news was on, but then it was around that time.

“Our top story this evening concerns a bizarre case in a quiet suburb. Around noon today, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba. The deceased has been identified as Yamano Mayumi, a twenty-seven year old announcer at the local television station. The initial results of the Inaba Police Department’s investigation have revealed—”

“Ah,” Nanako said. “The Inaba Police Department. Th-that’s where Dad works!”

“Are you worried about him?” He had no clue how such a young child would view a job like police officer.

“A little. But that’s his job, so this stuff happens.”

“The body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident’s roof. Authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such a state. With the cause of death also uncertain, police continue to investigate whether the death is an accident or a homicide. A thick fog common to the area has slowed their progress, and plans to fully canvass the area are delayed until tomorrow.”

“They found her on the roof? That’s scary…” Nanako was frowning, but perked up when a Junes commercial came on.

“At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products. Every day’s great at your Junes!”

His cousin immediately started singing along with the store jingle. “♫ Every day’s great at your Junes! ♫” She looked at him expectantly.

He didn’t have the heart to refuse, so he sang along, too.

Nanako got another surprised look. “You memorized it already? I’m the best one in my class!” she said, then continued to sing in between bites of her meal, the news report seemingly already forgotten.

####  13 April 2011, Wednesday

The next morning he woke up early and stepped over to the other house. He quickly set to making bentos for the four of them for lunch, then whipped up breakfast for everyone (but himself). The smell of his cooking brought everyone out and he had to stop briefly when he was pawed over by various happy family members.

“Will you guys bring my bento along? I don’t want to take it with me and subject it to an extra hour.”

Sin nodded. “Of course, tesoro.”

He gave Sin a quick kiss. “Awesome. While you guys are having breakfast, I’m going to set up that anchor. I know you might end up doing the runes for warding, but this will provide some peace of mind in the interim without someone needing to stay awake all night.”

When his hour was up he stepped over to the one park in Namimori—‘I really need to designate a place for this in Inaba,’ he thought—turned back, and stepped to his bedroom at the Dojima house. The time turner was tucked into a concealed pocket in his bag for the moment for retrieval when it was safe to put it back into storage, then he went to get a shower.

By the time he got downstairs Nanako was already making breakfast, so he didn’t make a fuss and instead fetched out plates to help her. A short time later the dishes were done and they were out the door. He parted with her along the way and met up with Sin, Hayato, and Mukuro, with Sin handing over the bento for him to tuck away.

“I continue to hope we can start using clones,” he muttered as they continued on to the school

Along the way Bike-Accident whizzed by on his bike, managed to have _another_ accident, and somehow ended up rolling around head first in a large metal trash can. “S-someone…”

Tsuna rolled his eyes and walked over to steady the can so the boy could extricate himself.

Bike-Accident looked highly embarrassed as he picked his bike up off the pavement. “Whew, you saved me. Thanks! Um… Oh, yeah, that’s right. You’re one of the transfer students, Dojima Tsunayoshi. I’m Hanamura Yosuke. Nice to meet ya.”

“Tsuna is fine,” he said, then turned slightly to invite the others to speak.

“Rokudo Sen,” Sin said, eyeing the bike. “Are you all right? That was quite a tumble you took.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I may have to get my bike checked, though. Say, did you guys hear about that incident from yesterday? They found that announcer lady hanging from an antenna! You think it was some kind of warning? There’s no way something that weird could’ve been an accident.”

“Too early to tell, really,” Mukuro said smoothly. “Rokudo Mukuro, by the way.”

Hayato shrugged. “Rokudo Hayato.”

“Dangling a dead body over a roof like that… That’s just messed up,” Yosuke said. “Then again, it’s pretty messed up to kill someone in the first place. Oh crap, we’re gonna be late if we don’t go!” He hopped back on his bike and pedaled away furiously.

Tsuna shook his head as they started walking. “That’s two days in a row he’s had an accident on that bike.”

It turned out that Morooka was the philosophy teacher, of all things. “Be quiet, you idiots! You guys _are_ in high school, aren’t you!? Can’t you shut up during class? Don’t you have any common sense? First of all, my job is to waste my precious time teaching you assholes philosophy! And since I’m so nice… I’ll straighten up your rotten attitudes while I’m at it! Aren’t you honored!? And I’ll be going especially hard on any of you morons that’re curious about the murder! Got it!? Now get your books out!”

Tsuna zoned out so hard it was lunch before he surfaced.

“I hope someone was listening this morning,” he said as he opened his bento.

Hayato rolled his eyes. “At least keep one ear open. You might get called on in class.”

Tsuna wrinkled his nose and started eating.

He halfway zoned during the afternoon portion of classes and was approached by Yosuke once the bell went.

“So, you getting used to this place?”

“More or less.”

“Wow, that was fast. There isn’t much to do here compared to the big city, but there is a certain … something you can’t get anywhere else. The air’s clean, the food’s great… Oh, you know about the local delicacy? It’s grilled steak, man! Like that’s anything special, huh? I know a place you can get it cheap. Wanna come? You helped me out this morning, so it’s on me.”

Chie apparently held powers of teleportation, because she appeared suddenly, a frown on her face. “What about me, huh? No apologies? My ‘Trial of the Dragon’—!”

“Urgh… You always come around when I’m talking about food…”

“How about it, Yukiko? Don’t you think he should treat us, too?”

“I’ll pass… I don’t want to gain any more weight. I need to help out at the inn today, anyway.”

‘More weight?’ he thought. ‘The girl is slender like a willow and she’s worried about weight?’

“Wow, Yukiko-san! You started training to take over the business?” Yosuke asked.

“It’s not like that! I’m just helping out when it gets busy. Well, I should be on my way.”

“Oh well,” Chie said. “We should get going, too.”

“Huh? Do I seriously have to treat two people?”

Tsuna shook his head. “It’s cool. We—” He indicated his family. “—were planning to check out Junes, and whatever shopping is to be had in Inaba. Yesterday wasn’t a good day, understandably, to learn more about the town.”

“Uh…”

“…How about you treat Satonaka-san because of that mishap with the DVD, and show us where Junes is?” he suggested.

“…Junes has a food court,” Yosuke said, “but they don’t have grilled steak.”

Tsuna shrugged and looked at Chie, who almost pouted.

“Well, it might not be grilled steak, but… I’ll help show you guys around,” she said.

Junes wasn’t that difficult to find. Instead of heading east to get home, they went south-ish. Junes was so huge it was hard to miss given it loomed up over the older, more modest structures.

Yosuke led them to the food court and bought a round of soda over to a table. “I’ll buy you some grilled steak another time,” he said to Chie as he passed out cups. “So, this is Junes. The food court, anyway. This location just opened up recently and my dad was assigned to manage it. So our entire family came out here about six months ago.”

“It’s weird,” Chie said. “It’s only been half a year since this place opened up, but I haven’t been to the local shopping district much since. A lot of stores started closing, and… Oh, uh…”

“You can’t blame it all on Junes, can you?” Yosuke said, looking faintly annoyed. “…Hey, it’s Saki-senpai! Sorry, be right back.”

“Saki-senpai?” Hayato asked.

“Oh, that’s Konishi Saki. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district. …I think she’s working here part-time, though.”

While Yosuke was off talking to Konishi, Tsuna asked, “You said stores were shutting down?”

Chie nodded. “I guess it’s hard to compete. Junes carries just about everything, really. The place is huge!” she said, waving a hand at the building’s façade.

“I take it you’ve always lived here,” Mukuro said.

“Yep! It can be kind of boring at times…”

“Sometimes peace and quiet is greatly desired,” Hayato said. “Tokyo has so many people and the buildings are so tall. It’s very crowded, people rush everywhere, barely talk to each other. Traveling via subway is cramped and hot and uncomfortable. There are parks, so there’s places to relax or fish, but…”

“Huh,” she said. “I’d still like to visit a city, though I guess it would be kind of strange to have thousands of people around you don’t recognize, all the time.” She looked away when Yosuke came back, trailing behind Konishi.

“Are you the transfer students?” Konishi said. “It must be nice to have someone else from the big city to talk to, huh? I don’t see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys much.”

“N-not necessarily…”

“He doesn’t have too many friends, so I hope you all get along good. Hana-chan’s a good guy, but he can get nosy sometimes. You gotta tell him right to his face when he starts to annoy you.”

“He’s a great guy,” Tsuna said, mostly out of irritation for her attitude.

Konishi laughed a bit tiredly. “I know, I’m just kidding.”

“C’mon, senpai. There’s no need to worry about something like that.”

“Well, my break’s just about over. Back to work I go… Laters!” Konishi nodded and headed for the building.

“Oh, uh, senpai!” Yosuke called, then laughed uncomfortably when she didn’t look back. “Saki-senpai says I’m annoying, but she’s even nosier than me. She has a younger brother, and she treats me pretty much the same way…”

Chie leaned forward in her chair. “Oh, you don’t want her treating you like a brother, huh? Oh, I get it... So that’s how it is. The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of the invading chain... The flame of forbidden love!”

Yosuke’s eyes went wide. “Wha—!? Dude, it’s not like that.”

“Oh reaaaally… Well, I know just the thing to cheer up a lovesick heart. You ever hear of the Midnight Channel? You’re supposed to look into a TV that’s switched off, alone, exactly at midnight on a rainy night. While you’re staring at your own image, another person will appear on the screen… And they say that person’s your soulmate.”

“What? For a second, I thought you were actually going to say something useful… How can you get all excited over such a childish urban legend like that?”

“Childish, huh? You don’t believe it, do you!?”

“Of course I don’t!”

“Well, it’s supposed to rain tonight! Let’s all try it out—then you’ll see!”

“Try it out…? Wait, you haven’t even tried it out yourself!? Wow, I’m trying to remember the last time I heard something this stupid… All that aside… You know that incident yesterday? You guys think it was murder? Oh, what if the culprit behind it was still lurking around…?” Yosuke laughed.

“Sheesh, you shouldn’t joke about stuff like that. Now who’s the childish one…? All I am saying is, you guys better try it out tonight.” She got up and waved, then took off at a jog.

Yosuke shook his head and finally sipped some of his drink. “So you’re all from…”

“I’m from a small town,” Tsuna said. “Bigger than Inaba, but not massively so. These three came from Tokyo most recently.”

Yosuke’s brows went up. “Most recently?”

Sin smiled. “We used to live in the same town as Tsuna, but moved away a few years ago. We all thought it was hilarious that we ended up together again, here in Inaba.”

“How come you all moved? If that’s okay to ask.”

“I don’t mind,” Tsuna said with a shrug. “My mother got married, went to live with her new husband in Tokyo. The owner of the restaurant she was chef for wasn’t especially happy about that, but… My step-father wasn’t too keen on having a teenager underfoot, so I came here to live with my uncle.”

Yosuke displayed a surprisingly empathetic look of surprise for a moment. “Wow…”

“Our father decided to retire early,” Mukuro said. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he still traveled a lot, though.”

“Well, since you guys were interes—”

“Hanamura-san!” a female voice called.

Yosuke’s head whipped around toward it. Tsuna’s gaze followed to see a cluster of three people wearing Junes aprons.

“Uh, damn. Sorry, I gotta go. Just check the store out, right? I’ll see you at school.” Yosuke jumped up and took off.

Tsuna finished his drink and looked at his family. “Shall we?” he asked in Spanish.

Junes was fucking huge, and it really had no business being in such a small town. They did seem to have everything, including a massive electronics department with a ton of nice flat-screen televisions. He made mental notes on the prices before they headed off to check out the grocery area.

“I wonder what this Midnight Channel thing is,” Sin said.

“I’m going to try it, for a laugh if nothing else,” Tsuna said. “I have to wonder if you’re supposed to be alone to make it easier for your mind to play tricks on you, though.”

He grabbed a basket and started adding various goods to it. Nanako had done a decent job shopping, but she had underestimated the amount required with an extra mouth and him preferring to make his own lunches. He also had the thought to make up a number of meals which could be frozen and reheated, so that it would be easier to deal with Dojima’s irregular schedule.

“It’s a little weird to run into an actual urban legend,” Hayato said, “but exciting, too.”

Tsuna shot him an understanding smile. He doubted Hayato would ever entirely leave behind his fondness for mysterious happenings or beings. The walk back to the house went fairly quietly, and they did take note of what was on offer in the shopping district, where Dojima had stopped to fill up his car. There were a lot of closed places, but a fair number of shops were still operating. The street itself wasn’t very well populated, lending credence to the assertion that Junes was drawing away too many customers and putting a serious crimp in local-owned businesses.

His family did not come in with him, mostly because he did not want to alarm Nanako, and Dojima had yet to meet any of them. They just handed off the bags they had been carrying and said they’d talk to him later.


	3. λ21: 03: 13-15 April 2011

## λ21  
03: 13-15 April 2011

####  13 April 2011, Wednesday

Inside he unloaded everything he had bought, with Nanako watching on curiously, then said, “What do you think of the idea of us sitting down and planning out meals? Then we would know exactly what to purchase each week.”

“Um… Okay.”

Tsuna nodded and pulled a notebook and pencil from his bag, then took a seat at the table. They spent the next hour roughing out a plan, though he had to ask her a number of questions about things she liked, disliked, had never tried, and so forth before he could come up with a varied series of meals that should suit both of them. Dojima’s preferences were a mere afterthought, since Nanako had no real clue what her father liked aside from things like sushi and cup ramen.

Worst case he supposed he could leave a note for the man asking about it.

With that out of the way he set about making dinner for the three of them, just in case the man showed up. It wasn’t long before he and Nanako were tucking into gyūdon while watching TV. He was surprised when he heard the front door open and looked up to see Dojima coming in.

“Oh, Dad’s home!” Nanako said.

Dojima tossed his jacket over one of the kitchen chairs and sighed. “What a day… Well, I’m back. Did anything happen while I was out?”

“We made up a meal plan,” Nanako said.

“A meal plan?” Dojima said in disbelief. “Well, I knew my sister is a good cook, but…”

Tsuna smiled serenely. “It seems to run in the family. If you would be so kind as to let me know at some point what things you like to eat, we can work that in.”

“Uh, right. Can you put the news on for me?”

Nanako obligingly did so while Tsuna went to get the extra portion of food for his uncle.

“Next, more details in the developing story on the incident in foggy Inaba. Yamano Mayumi’s dead body was found hanging above a house in this isolated rural town. It is confirmed that Yamano-san has been involved in an affair with Namatame Taro, husband of enka singer Hiiragi Misuzu. The police plan to investigate this relationship and question any personnel involved with them. In addition, we now bring you an exclusive interview with the local student who found Yamano-san’s body.”

Dojima sighed. “And interview with the kid…? Where the hell did they find her?”

“What went through your mind when you saw it? Could you tell she was dead? Did you see her face?”

The camera switched to the student, though her face was blurred with a filter to help disguise her identity, and when she spoke it was clear that had been filtered, too.

“Um…”

“Don’t you think it’s scary that someone was killed on a foggy day?”

‘Why are they so obsessed with fog?’ he wondered.

“Huh…? She was killed?”

“Oh, er… So did you see anyone suspicious around here?”

“No, not really…”

“We heard that you found it when you left school early. Did you have some personal business to take care of?”

Even through the filters Tsuna could tell the girl (who resembled what little he had seen of Konishi Saki) was confused by the line of questioning, and unhappy at having her private life poked into. “Huh? That’s…”

The image switched back to the announcer, who said, “Many store owners are raising concerns about losing customers as a result of this tragedy which occurred near the local shopping district.”

“Hmph. If they lose more customers, it’ll be because you’re making such a stink about it,” Dojima muttered.

“It really is bizarre, isn’t it? I mean, hanging someone upside down from an antenna…” said the announcer’s co-commentator. “I’d have to say it’s a warning or a sign from the culprit.”

“Yes, but so far, no one has come forward to take credit for the crime.”

“Loads of prank calls, though,” Dojima commented sleepily.

“So the cause of death is still unknown?” said the commentator. “And they don’t have a single suspect yet? Taxpayers’ funds are going to a police force who can’t even figure out if this is an accident or a homicide?”

Dojima’s head started to dip forward.

“We’ll be right back after these messages.”

“At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day’s great at your Junes!”

“Hey, Dad… Can we go to Junes together sometime?”

Dojima did not respond. His chin was resting against his chest and his head was tilted slightly to the side.

“…No? Geez…”

“A rough day, indeed,” he said. “Let’s get him to bed, yes?”

Nanako nodded, looking more than a little put out. He felt bad for her, but also happy because she seemed to be opening up around him.

After that was taken care of and the dishes seen to he went upstairs to his bedroom. It was early enough yet so he settled in to play a game on his laptop. It began to rain, but that was ignored in favor of being a happy pyromaniac in the holds of Skyrim.

However, when midnight drew closer, he finished up his current quest and exited the game in readiness for seeing if the urban legend Chie had mentioned was even a thing. The TV was cold and dark and the only thing he could see was his own reflection and that of the street lights coming in through the windows.

Without warning an image appeared on the screen. It looked like the shopping district? There were vending machines present, but those could be found in many places. A girl with long hair was running down the street, but given she was in profile and the image was blurry and full of static, he could not definitively state who it was.

‘Holy fuck,’ he thought. ‘Have I gone mental, or is this really a thing?’

A second later he felt something in his head—or someone. 

I am thou. Thou art I. Thou art the one who opens the door.

He clutched his head and tried to drive whatever it was out. His family would be deeply unhappy to hear about this, and would probably become a bit violent over it.

The image on the screen vanished, leaving it cold and dark again. He reached out to touch it, to verify that whether or not there was heat, to see if it had actually turned on, or if all of it had been some kind of illusion—and his hand went straight through the screen.

Tsuna jerked back in surprise, his heart pounding. ‘What the everloving fuck!?’

He was just about to open a window to the other house when one opened in front of him. Hayato’s face was prominent, and he looked freaked out. “What the fuck was that!?” his Storm said roughly.

“Shhh! It is around midnight,” he chastised. “My cousin and uncle are both sleeping.”

Hayato squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and nodded. “Sorry. That urban legend thing, though…”

“Yeah, I just saw something freaky, and I had a voice talking in my head. Get Daemon, if you will. He needs to take a look at this.”

Hayato nodded and looked off to the side.

While he was waiting, Tsuna pulled a vial out of storage and dropped a memory into it, then shifted it to the other side. Daemon arrived and immediately started rummaging in his brain, then disengaged with a frown on his face.

“I don’t have a clue what that was, and find it deeply disturbing. I think we need to have at least one extra TV set up here so someone can be watching on rainy nights. That voice, though…”

In the background he could see everyone else using the pensieve so they could see what Tsuna had experienced.

“I couldn’t tell where it was coming from,” he said. “The combination of that and me putting my hand _into_ a TV screen makes me wonder if that’s the door it was talking about, or if I’m taking things too literally.”

“The fact that you could… Can you do it again, now, while I’m watching?”

“Uh…” Tsuna turned to the TV and reached out to touch the screen. As before his hand went through, though this time he noticed there was a subtle ripple effect, like disturbing still water. “Seems so. Can Hayato do it? He saw it, but I imagine he didn’t hear a voice.”

They both looked at the family, who were just then emerging from their mental journey. When asked Hayato shook his head. “No, no voice. I just saw what you saw on the screen. It didn’t occur to me to test the TV for warmth.”

“Of more concern are those two students,” Xeul said. “The girl seems quite pushy and strong-willed. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it could prove inconvenient.”

He sighed. “Yeah, but… I’ll be over first thing. We can talk more then.”

####  14 April 2011, Thursday

The heavenly scents of cooking brought his family to the kitchen. “Morning. Do you think what happened with the screen is in any way connected to those weird dreams?”

“Possibly,” Chikusa said. “Hayato saw those images, too, without the dreams, but there’s nothing saying they aren’t connected in some way.”

He nodded and finished up, sliding plates onto the table with Ken’s help. “I’m going to check the TV here, as well,” he said, and wasn’t the least bit surprised when everyone frowned. “Just to touch. I want to know if it’s all televisions, or…”

Despite their reservations—they had promptly picked up their plates and followed behind him to they could supervise—he reached out to touch the surface of the flat-screen set up in the living area. As before, his fingers passed right through as if it was mere illusion. He pulled back and hit the power button, and the TV came on normally.

“Well,” he said. “I still want to get a better TV for my room at that house, despite this. I’ve never been particularly clumsy—unsealed, anyway—so it shouldn’t be an issue, especially if I work up some sort of cover for it.”

Everyone relaxed at that pronouncement.

“Maybe a whiteboard on a swing arm?” Sin suggested. “You could jot down assignments or something, and just swing it out of the way when you want to play a game. You’d be sitting down at that point, so it’d be more than difficult to trip and fall in.”

He nodded. “Okay, I have to turn back. I’ll see you at the flood plain. After school we can go back to Junes and buy one. It’d be nice if they delivered.”

“And if not, we just use the car.”

The bell rang and Tsuna shoved his notes into his bag in preparation for leaving. Naturally, Yosuke showed up at their cluster of desks.

“Y-yo, um…” Yosuke stuttered. “It’s, uh, really not that important, but… Well, yesterday on TV, I… Oh, ah, never mind. Look, I’ll tell you later.” He laughed sheepishly, and uncomfortably.

Chie hopped up from her desk and came around. “Yosuke-san, did you hear the rumor? Saki-senpai’s supposedly the one who discovered that body.”

“I wonder if that’s why she looked so down,” Yosuke said. “She doesn’t seem to be at school today, either.”

“Hey, Yukiko,” Chie said, looking to the side where the other girl’s desk was. “Are you helping out at the inn today, too?”

“Things are really out of hand right now,” Yukiko said tiredly as she got up. “I’m sorry.” She headed out a moment later.

“Is it just me, or does Yukiko-san seem way too stressed out today?” Yosuke asked.

“I guess they're running her ragged,” Chie said. “By the way, did you see … it … last night?”

“Huh? Uh, well… What about you?”

“I did! I seriously saw a girl! But … my soulmate’s a girl? What’s that supposed to mean? I couldn’t quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure. Her hair was brown, about shoulder length. She was wearing our school uniform, and…”

“Hey… I think that’s the same person I saw. I couldn’t make out that much detail, though. The image I saw was much blurrier.”

Tsuna exchanged a look with his family.

“Wait, so you did see it, too!? And we saw the same girl…?” Chie said, her face the picture of confusion. “Does that mean … we have the same soulmate?”

“How should I know?” Yosuke turned to Tsuna and the others. “How ’bout you guys? Did any of you see it?”

“I did, and Hayato, so I’m thinking this has absolutely nothing to do with soulmates. I couldn’t tell who the girl was, just that she seemed to be running down a street and past some vending machines. It was really blurry and there was a lot of static. I heard a voice at one point, and that freaked me out almost as much as the image on the screen.”

Yosuke huffed. “It sounds like we all saw the same person. A voice, though? Did you fall asleep in front of your TV?”

Tsuna shrugged.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Chie said. “Our family’s been talking about buying a bigger TV.”

“Oh yeah? Well, flat-screen TVs are definitely in these days. Wanna go check ’em out on the way back? We’re beefing up our electronics department this month.”

“Oh, definitely! My parents don’t know anything about electronics, and I’ve gotta see my kung-fu movies on the big screen! Hwa-taaaa!” she said, striking a pose.

“…We’ve got some pretty big ones in stock. I bet they’d be more than big enough.”

“I was looking to purchase a TV myself,” he said. “Does Junes deliver or…?”

“Uh… Yeah, they do,” Yosuke said with a nod. “Let’s go!”

Chie flipped out (with joy) over the size of some of the televisions, but flipped out again when she saw the prices. “Holy crap, it’s expensive! Who buys something like this?”

“I dunno,” Yosuke said. “Rich folks? Honestly, not many people shop for TVs here. That’s why we don’t have clerks around.”

“Oh, they said they wanted one that’s cheap. You got any suggestions?”

Yosuke led her off to the side so he could show her other options.

“Why are they beefing up their electronics department if no one buys the TVs?” he muttered, then checked the prices. Worst case he could just step over to Kobe or Osaka and purchase there, then have one of Samsara pretend to be a delivery person. He did find one big enough to suit his needs that wasn’t too dear—of course, his perception of dear differed markedly from someone like Chie, given that he was insanely wealthy—and made a mental note to hit up the first clerk he saw to complete the sale and arrange for delivery.

That being determined, he shifted over to one of the sets that was on and brushed his fingers over the screen; nothing happened. He could see Hayato in his peripheral vision scribbling something down on a notepad. He moved to one of the flat-screens that was not on and tried again; his fingers sank beneath the surface.

Yosuke and Chie suddenly hustled back over with gaping mouths and wide eyes. Before Tsuna could move back Yosuke said, “Shit! Customers! They’re coming!”

In the ensuing panic caused by the two teens, Tsuna found himself punted straight into the screen.

After a very long fall—though Tsuna admitted his perception was probably off due to surprise, mild panic, and the relief in the realization that his family had come with him—they all landed hard on some kind of surface.

“Fuck,” he muttered, hauling himself up. “What the everloving fuck?”

A look round showed they were on something resembling a stage. The area, because he could not call it a place, exactly, looked like a studio set or something similar. There were bright lights ringing the platform at head height, and spotlights overhead, descending from structural beams. Fog was heavy in every direction and the area was overwhelmingly tinted yellow. Off to the side was a flat metal bridge spanning a gap, and the floor beneath him had outlines on it, of bodies, like he’d seen in some crime dramas, on a base of concentric circles, in black and white. The border of the “stage” was squares of red and black.

Sin, Hayato, and Mukuro were likewise looking around, trying to make sense of the place.

“Is everyone all right?” he asked, mostly looking at Chie and Yosuke.

“I think my butt’s cracked now,” Yosuke said as he picked himself up gingerly. “Whoa!”

“Wh-what now!?” Chie said. “Did you wet your pants or something?”

“No, stupid! Look around!”

“Is this … a studio? All this fog… Or is it smoke? There’s no place like this in Inaba, is there?”

“Hell no,” Yosuke said. “Man, this place is huge.”

“What’re we gonna do…?” Chie asked, her voice a bit on the thin and reedy side.

“I would say go home,” he said, “but I’m not seeing an immediate way out.”

“Dude, how the hell did you do that, anyway!?” Yosuke asked him. “Your hand! It was in the TV!”

Tsuna shrugged. “I’ve no idea. All I wanted to do was buy a television for my room to replace the old clunker in there. Well, I can’t see the point in staying here to rot, so… I’m heading over that bridge to see what’s out there. There must be an exit somewhere.” He started walking, his family forming up behind him.

Chie and Yosuke hastened over after a pause, bringing up the rear.

I’d like to say I’m surprised, but…

Tsuna smirked and wrote: Kami only knows what the hell we’re up against this time. Seems like the Great Shuffler was bored and wanted to see how we’d handle a new complication.

Sin snorted softly.

A warning would have been nice, but maybe that’s what those weird dreams were about.

There were a multitude of paths they could take, but Tsuna let his intuition guide him. The sky where they could see it was jagged shifting bands of red and black. It reminded him of the floor and door in the fog dream.

They eventually found themselves approaching a building, which was both a relief and not. The path they were on ended at a door, a perfectly normal looking door, so he opened it and walked in.

“Hey, it is me or is the fog lighter in here?” Yosuke asked.

They appeared to be in a hotel room.

Yosuke checked the phone on a side table and shook his head. “No service. What a surprise.”

Most prominent was the noose hanging in the center of the room, over a chair. Two of the walls had posters on them, and every one had the face cut or slashed out. Splotches of red (paint? blood?) were splattered on the walls, as well as ones of white.

Someone was feeling mighty violent.

And perhaps suicidal. Or liked imagining their victim hanging from that noose.

My intuition led us here for a reason. The posters, noose, and resemblance to a hotel room all must figure in. The question is how to put the pieces together.

Chie huffed in, scowling. “Can’t you guys slow down a little? It’s hard enough to see where you’re going when—huh? It’s a dead end! There’s no exit!”

Tsuna chose not to remark on the increasing fear and desperation in her voice. There was little point in embarrassing the girl.

“It keeps getting creepier and creepier the farther we go,” Yosuke said. “Aargh! I can’t hold it any longer. My bladder’s gonna explode!” The boy went over to the corner partially concealed by a folding screen.

“Yosuke!? What’re you doing!?”

“I gotta let it out before I piss my pants!”

Okay, he clearly has an anxious bladder. Then again, we have been walking for what felt like hours.

“You’re going here!? Oh, you have got to be kidding! At least go outside the room!”

Yosuke dashed out the door, his face red with embarrassment.

Chie shook her head and looked around. “What’s with this room? Check out these posters. Their faces are all cut out. Someone must really hate whoever that is.”

Is your intuition giving you any other clues?

Tsuna shook his head slightly as he pretended to examine the posters more closely. This is important somehow. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that poster somewhere recently. Very recently. Like, at Junes. But I was focused on the televisions, not my surroundings. Once Yosuke-san is done, we should try again.

What are we going to do about these two kids?

Mukuro’s brow went up, a faint smirk forming. I suggest one of us opens a window—or tries to—where those two can’t see. Get the twins in place to meddle with their memories and make them think this was a dream, perhaps?

“Dude, this chair and rope,” Yosuke said as he walked back in. “That kind of arrangement is never good. It’s tied in a noose. Is… Is that a scarf?”

“We should try to find an exit,” Chie said, moving closer to the door. “I’m not feeling so good.”

“Now that you mention it, me, too. I’m seriously starting to feel sick.”

Tsuna caught Mukuro’s eye as he turned to exit, then headed through the door, leaning on his intuition again to guide his path. It led him back to their starting point, which was mildly disturbing. It had never led him wrong, though (except in the case of an impending hilariously stupid death), so he knew there was more to find, just not visible at the moment.

He heard two soft thuds and turned around. Chie and Yosuke were passed out on the floor. Amusingly enough, they had each fallen onto one of the corpse outlines.

Mukuro smiled innocently. Couldn’t get in contact with anyone, so I sent these two to sleep. When we get out, however that happens, we can make it all seem like a dream.

Tsuna nodded and twitched as his intuition poked him. His head snapped around to see a figure approaching through the fog. It was oddly shaped, rather like an inverted egg on legs. He could not be sure, but the figure would reach his shoulder, maybe?

Once it got closer he could see it was “clothed” in red and white, with blue … fur? … on its head, and ears shaped like a bear’s or chimpanzee’s. Its eyes were large and black, and there was a zipper all the way around where its neck should be. It made the silliest sounds as it walked.

“What in the world…?”

“Th-that’s what I want to know!” the figure said. It rather resembled a stylized bear.

“Hello,” he said softly. “What is this place?”

“This place is what it is. It doesn’t have a name. It’s where I live.”

He already knew Mukuro wouldn’t dare try to look into the figure’s mind, not without knowing what it actually was.

“If I was you guys, I’d hurry back to the other side. Someone’s been throwing people in here. It’s a big headache.”

“Throwing people in,” he muttered. “Do you know who?”

“I dunno who’s doing it! I just want them to think before they go doing things like that!” The fellow’s face was surprisingly mobile, and its voice was on the male side of androgynous. “You guys really need to leave before the fog comes back!”

“We have yet to find an exit,” he said. “We have no idea how to get back.”

The “bear” tilted to one side, as if considering, then tapped his foot twice. Out of nothing a stack of three old-style cabinet TVs appeared, complete with an antenna at the top.

“I … don’t understand,” he said. “Those are way smaller than the one we fell into. How could we even fit?”

The bear huffed and flailed its arms. “A lot of things here look different from what they are! That’s the way out!”

Tsuna looked back at his family, then at the two sleepers. “All right…” He and Sin grabbed Yosuke while Chie was hefted up by Hayato and Mukuro. A glance at the bear showed it looked impatient. Impatient enough that it trundled up behind them … and pushed.

Tsuna sighed as he picked himself up off the floor, again.

We need to move them to where they were before they rushed over.

A minute later the two teens were in front of the TV Yosuke had been showing Chie, sprawled on the floor.

“I guess buying a new TV is going to have to wait,” he muttered. He nodded to Mukuro as a signal, then watched as his official Mist released the two from their forced slumber.

Tsuna crouched down as the two came awake. “Are you two all right? You just … dozed off. I’d think someone set loose sleeping gas, but it was just you two affected,” he said, oozing confusion and concern. “Do either of you have a history of narcolepsy? Maybe we should get you home. Guys?”

Without giving them a chance to protest—that Mukuro was likely keeping them a bit befuddled and woozy helped—he and Sin hauled Yosuke up while Hayato and Mukuro handled Chie, then started getting them out of the store. He kept an invisible-but-for-them window open on the other team, and once the two teens were delivered safely home, they reconvened at the other house.

Naturally, the remaining family members were unhappy to hear about their adventure, especially the part where Mukuro told them he had tried to open a window to them and could not.

“The window opened,” Mukuro said, “but all I got was fog, like a TV screen of static when a local station went offline for the night.”

“Experiment time,” Daemon said, frowning. “Hayato, Sin, Mukuro… Can any of you reach into a screen, or is it just Heul?”

Brows went up and they all wandered over to the nearest TV. A minute later they had their answer: no.

“Hopefully, with what Mukuro did, those two really will think it was all just a bizarre dream, especially if they try to push their hand through a screen and fail,” he said. “That we separated them and got them home before they had a chance to compare notes should help, I hope.”

“On a related note,” Sin said, “that poster? There were several on the walls at Junes. It was that enka singer on the news, Hiiragi Misuzu. The bear said someone was throwing people into that … world. If Yamano was thrown in, a room like that could be showing her loathing of Hiiragi.”

“It could also be showing her desire to off herself due to the affair coming to light,” Hayato said. “I guess it would depend on who owned that scarf, or if it was even relevant.”

Daemon and Xeul nodded. “We’ll start poking around, see what we can find.”

Tsuna dumped a memory into a vial and handed it over. “All right. I should get back to the house. It’s already quite late, and I fully expect to be too late to make dinner for my cousin, which puts me in something of a bad light.”

“Hey, welcome home,” Dojima said. He was seated at the living area table with Nanako, waiting on their cup ramen to finish “cooking”, and watching the television. “Uh-hm… Well, I doubt you’d know, but have you heard anything about a student named Konishi Saki?”

“I heard someone say she wasn’t at school today.”

“Oh, I see,” Dojima said. “To be honest … we got a call from her family. She’s disappeared. We’ve got people looking for her, but she hasn’t been found yet.” He sighed. “Work just keeps piling up…”

Tsuna honestly had to wonder what a police officer, a detective, was doing discussing things like that in front of him and Nanako. He also found it interesting that his uncle didn’t so much as question where he’d been all afternoon, as if he was completely uninterested or unaccustomed to asking such questions.

“And now, more on the case still casting a shadow over the foggy town of Inaba,” said the announcer as the program switched to the news. “Not long ago, television announcer Yamano Mayumi was found dead in the small town. Up until now, her whereabouts prior to her death had been unknown. But the police investigation has found that she had been staying in the region’s famous Amagi Inn.”

‘That might explain why Yukiko-san has been so run down. They must be having fits over there right now, first having such a controversial person staying, and then with her death.’

“She had apparently been staying there alone. Perhaps she was taking a vacation to recover from her ordeal?”

“Oh, yes,” the commentator said enthusiastically, “the Amagi Inn! Their hot springs are first-rate. The manager’s teenage daughter also works there, and it’s rumored that she’ll take over the inn this spring. If that happens, she’ll be one of the youngest managers on record! I should book another trip there!”

The announcer smiled a polite but strained smile. “Uh… I-I see… Moving along, it’s time for the weather report. The rain has begun to subside. From now until morning, heavy fog warnings will be in effect in the Inaba region. Visibility will be severely reduced, so please be careful if you plan on driving in the area.”

“Is the ramen ready now?” Nanako asked.

“Give it some more time,” Dojima replied.

Tsuna felt a chill go through him, but ignored it for the moment. He needed to make himself dinner.

####  15 April 2011, Friday

He came down for breakfast to see Dojima heading out. “Ah, you’re up. Well, I’m off.”

“…Dad had to go do something. He got a call, so he left,” Nanako said, a worried look on her face.

Breakfast was quickly made up, eaten, and the dishes taken care of, then he and Nanako set out. Nanako split off at the usual place and he met up with Sin, Mukuro, and Hayato. As they walked along they came upon two female students gossiping as they headed to school.

“When I looked, I saw three police cars zooming by,” Red-Umbrella-Girl said.

“You live by the police station, don’t you? Did you hear anything?” White-Umbrella-Girl asked.

“I heard yelling, but nothing more. Total disappointment.”

“Geez, you need to pay more attention to stuff like that. How else are we supposed to get the juicy stories?”

In the near distance he could hear sirens.

They were barely in the doors when the PA came on to inform everyone of an assembly. They were to skip going to their classrooms and instead go to the gymnasium.

Tsuna exchanged a look with his family and shrugged.

“Hey… Did you see it yesterday?” asked a girl with her hair in a bun as they all stood in the gym, idling restlessly.

“Of course not. What, is that rumor for real?” a long-haired girl replied.

“I dunno, but it seems like a lot of people have seen it.”

Nearby he heard Chie say, “Yukiko said she’d be here after lunch. I wonder why they’re holding a school assembly all of a sudden. Hey, what’s wrong, Yosuke?”

“Oh, it’s nothing…”

Sofue-sensei, the weird world history teacher who liked to cosplay as an Ancient Egyptian, tapped the microphone at the podium on the stage. “Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly is about to begin. First, the Principal has something to say.”

The principal took her place and cleared his throat before saying, “I … regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you. Konishi Saki, of Class 3-3 … has passed away.”

Chie gasped. “Passed away!?” she hissed.

“Konishi-san was found deceased early this morning. The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police. If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you as students of this school to provide only the facts.” He paused to wave his hands in a shushing motion as whispers sprang up everywhere. “All right, please quiet down. I have been assured by the faculty that there’s been no evidence that bullying was involved in the incident. So mind what you say, not only to the police, but to anyone who asks.”

“Found dead?” Chie said quietly. “How could this happen…?”

The principal rambled on for a while longer, then released them to their classrooms. On the way to the staircase they encountered two girls gossiping away. Not a surprise, as gossip in such a small town was likely a favorite form of entertainment, but the subject matter was delicate enough that it all came across as being ghoulish.

“She died the same was as the announcer, right? That’s _so_ creepy.”

“Well, last time, it was from an antenna, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole! It’s gotta be a serial murder case.”

“Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison.”

“Unknown? C’mon, this isn’t some sci-fi drama. Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl who looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie. They said she totally looked like she was in pain! Isn’t that scary?”

The other girl laughed. “Sounds like someone had a nightmare. The media’s been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain.”

Chie and Yosuke preceded them up the stairs, and Tsuna and his friends took care to be “uninteresting”.

“Hey… Did you check out the TV last night?” Yosuke asked Chie.

“Not you, too, Yosuke!”

“Just listen for a sec! Something kept bothering me, so… I watched it again, and … I think the girl on the screen … was Saki-senpai. There’s no mistaking it. Senpai looked like … she was writhing in pain. And then … she disappeared from the screen.”

Chie’s body language expressed doubt and surprise.

“You heard Saki-senpai’s body was found in a similar situation as that announcer’s right? Well, remember that guy you mentioned? How he was all excited that his soulmate was the announcer? Maybe, just maybe, Yamano-san might’ve been on that Midnight Channel before she died, too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chie said as they neared their classroom. “Hold on, are you saying … people who appear on that TV … die?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I can’t just dismiss it as coincidence.”

They filed into the classroom and took their seats. Good news that so far neither had brought up their visit into the TV, which meant maybe they were convinced it was a nightmarish dream, but bad news that Yosuke clearly had feelings for the dead third year and might be unwilling to let the matter go.

He’s insightful.

Tsuna nodded slightly.

But I can’t see us letting mere children get involved in this.

Me, neither, he wrote, which is somewhat hypocritical, considering my own history…

Permission to meddle, Heul?

He nodded again. The last thing he wanted was for two children to get mixed up in whatever craziness was going on in sleepy, foggy Inaba.

“Are you out of your mind!?” Daemon said.

Tsuna merely stared at his brother.

“The very idea is insane!” His brother started pacing back and forth, intent on wearing a hole in the floor, it seemed. “How can you talk of risking yourself like that? What if you can’t get back again? We wouldn’t know a damn thing until you ended up dead and we were all in the next universe.”

“What if whatever big bad is behind all this is only accessible in that TV World?” Chikusa asked.

Daemon threw up his hands and kept pacing.

“Heul has had two very bizarre dreams, all pointing to him being the one to handle whatever it is this is,” Chikusa continued. “The Great Shuffler presumably does not send us places without something in mind, with one exception I can think of, and Heul had already made it exceptionally clear he wanted a holiday.”

“Well,” Ken said, “it’s true we’ve always accomplished certain goals in any given universe, but that was of our own volition, as an extension of Heul’s driving goal. We were given an additional complication that one time, and even told so at the start. What is to say this isn’t the same, minus the warning?”

“Heul has always been the focus, the nexus,” Hayato said. “He’s the one having the dreams, the one who can reach into that whatever it is, that world. If people really are being thrown in there and dying because of it, because they can’t find a way out… Sure, maybe the reporter chick committed the sin of adultery, but I’m having trouble believing that third year did something to warrant death.”

“We can check, though obviously, we’ll never have the opportunity to check her mind,” Xeul added. “Her family might know something. I doubt we’d find anything, though.”

“What if that bear thing doesn’t show up again?” Daemon stressed, then glared at him. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Because I already know what I want to do. I’m waiting to see what everyone else thinks. If they think it’s worth the risk.”

“…And your intuition?”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t have a problem with it. I’m not being warned against the idea. I’m not being nudged toward it, either, to be fair.”

Daemon heaved a sigh and nodded. “Use the television here, then. The idea of going back to Junes to do this is ridiculous.”

“And who will be going?” Ken asked. “The original four, or…?”

Tsuna shrugged again. “I’m not sure it matters.” He was fairly sure that Daemon was being so tetchy because he felt helpless, knowing it was up to the appearance of a bear-like creature to ensure their return, and knowing they could not open windows to tag along, and that none of them dared to step between whatever that place was to what they recognized as the real world.

“Well, get on with it, then,” Daemon said snappishly and huffed off to the living room, where the large flat-screen was located.

Tsuna hummed. “I think I’ll prepare some bentos, just in case.” He set about doing that and a half hour later they were ready for another trip to the other side of the TV.

Hayato, Sin, and Mukuro latched onto him, and off they went. They landed much the same despite Tsuna using Earth Flames to slow their descent, if one could call it a descent. To Tsuna it felt a bit like falling rapidly through a whirlwind and not a straight drop. With no real frame of reference, he wasn’t exactly surprised when his attempt failed.

“It’s the same place, at least,” he muttered as he picked himself up.

“Y-you guys… Why’d you come back?” The bear had appeared again, silently. “I get it! You’re the ones behind this!”

Tsuna’s brow went up. “Behind this…?”

“Lately, I can tell someone’s been throwing people in here. It’s making this world more and more messed up. This is the second time you guys came here. And I don’t think anyone forced you in. That means you’re the most suspicious! You guys must be the ones throwing the people in here, raaaawr!”

Tsuna couldn’t help but think the bear-ish creature was adorable in its—his?—attempts at ferocity. “Hm, no. We’re trying to figure out what’s going on. For some reason I have the ability to reach into this world, but not to get back out on my own. I can bring people with me. You’re saying someone threw people in.”

“Yamano and Konishi,” Sin said. “And both ended up dead.”

The bear blinked, destroying his adorably ferocious look. He reminded Tsuna a little of Lambo, actually, just not as chaotically annoying.

“Two people, presumably thrown in here, presumably against their wills,” Tsuna said calmly. “Two people found dead on our side, when the fog was at its worst. Don’t know if there’s a connection there. But we hoped to meet you again so we could ask questions, and have a way out after we investigated.”

“A dead body? Whenever the fog appears…? I know that if it’s foggy on your side, the fog lifts here. It’s really dangerous when the fog lifts. That’s when the Shadows get violent. Ah… I get it…”

“So they flip-flop, like a binary gate,” Sin said. “Shadows get violent?”

“That’s why I said to hurry back! It’s dangerous when that happens!”

Tsuna was starting to wonder just how simple the creature was—or rather, how limited its experience was.

“What is this place, anyway?” Mukuro asked. “It _looks_ like a TV studio. Is something being filmed here? That odd show?”

“Show? Filmed? What does that mean?”

“Hm. If you don’t know what the word means…”

“I don't get it. This world has always been like this. No one has ever done that filming thing here.”

“Okay,” Tsuna said with a sigh. “Always been like this?”

“Only me and Shadows are here! I told you before!”

“Not that I recall, but all right. What do you mean by shadows? And … what’s with the costume? Who are you that you’d wear something like that? Is it to keep these shadow things away from you?”

“I … just live here,” the bear said. “I just want to live peacefully. Okay. I’ll believe that you guys aren’t the culprits. But I want you to find the real guy who did all this. You have to stop him. Promise me, or else … I’m not gonna let you guys outta here. This can’t keep going on! My home here will be a complete mess! And then… And then… I…” The bear started sobbing.

Tsuna was annoyed at having his questions ignored, but also reminded of that first dream. “It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed on you,” he muttered.

“You’re the only ones I can ask. Will you promise me?” The bear someone managed to make his already large eyes even larger.

Tsuna felt a warm hand of support on his shoulder and knew it was Sin. “…In exchange, will you promise to always provide us with a way out, a way back to our side?” he said after a long pause. “Because according to what you said earlier, we’ll die if we can’t leave, and then we won’t be any help to anyone.”

“Of course!” the bear said with a little hop.

“Then … I promise.”

“Th-thank you!” the bear cried, flapping his little arms.

“Well, I am Tsuna. With me are Sen, Hayato, and Mukuro,” he said, gesturing to each in turn. “What is your name?”

The bear blinked innocently. “…Teddie.”

“Of course it is,” Hayato said with a huff.

“You know more than us about this place,” Mukuro said. “Any suggestions as to where to start?”

“I dunno. Oh, but I know where the last person came in.”

“Konishi Saki.”

Teddie shrugged. “I mean the person who came in and disappeared last time. I dunno the name. I’ll take you there. You might find clues. Oh, one thing first. You should put these on.” Teddie offered up four sets of glasses with a beary cheerful smile.

Tsuna accepted a set and examined them; they appeared to be normal glasses, though his had orange stripes on the side pieces. He slid them on and nearly gasped. Whatever the lenses were made of cut back or stripped away the fog and yellow cast to everything.

“Huh,” Hayato said, looking around. “Pretty cool, little bear.”

“They’ll help you walk through the fog,” Teddie said earnestly. “And, well, I’ve been here a long time. So you can rely on me! Uh, but I can only show you where the place is. You guys will have to defend yourselves. I’ve got no muscles, so I’ll give you guys moral support from a safe distance! How’s that sound?”

Teddie skittered off, clearly expecting them to follow, and led them a place that loomed out of the distant fog, a place that closely resembled the shopping district. The sky overhead was jagged and shifting bands of black and red. It seemed to be a theme of this … other world.

Mukuro mirrored his thoughts by saying it aloud.

“Some weird places have appeared here recently. Things are getting so tangled, I dunno what to do,” Teddie said.

Mukuro looked at the bear appraisingly. “You’re standing awfully far away. I do hope you’re not planning to flee if something comes up.”

“Of course not! I mean, uh, I can’t stand too close, you know. I’d get in your way.”

Mukuro nodded sagely. “Right.”

“Of all places, why this?” Sin muttered. “Just because the girl’s parents had a store here?”

“I dunno,” Teddie said. “This is reality for the one who’s here.”

“Let’s look around, guys. If Konishi really was thrown in, the, ah, fluidity of this place might have manifested what she was most familiar with. We don’t know if her family lived above the shop, or elsewhere in town.”

“A liquor store, right?” Hayato asked.

“That’s what I remember was said.” He started walking again and stopped shortly after. Two vending machines were present, like the ones he saw on the Midnight Channel. To the left was what should have been a door, but instead was concentric circles of black and red, narrowing as they went, as if he was looking at the inside of a cone. The sign above read Konishi Liquor Store.

Not much farther on the street dissolved into fog and sky.

“W-wait a second,” Teddie said, sounding frightened. “Th-they’re here! Shadows. I had a feeling they were going to attack!”

Tsuna took an involuntary step back when a blue mask appeared from the … portal? Blue, with black pits for eyes and a downturned mouth. As it pushed forward a body of sorts appeared with it, like black slime, complete with sickening squelching sounds as it moved. Another appeared, much the same.

They almost resembled hooded figures with masks to hide their faces, but clearly were not. They were far too amorphous for that to be true. As they moved forward they left a trail of black slime on the pavement.

That voice invaded his head again, causing him to clutch it with one hand.

I am thou, and thou art I. The time has come for the truth. Open thine eyes, and call forth what is within.

In his hand a card appeared, with an odd mask on the back as the design. He flipped it over and saw a pattern of black and charcoal diamonds, but just a second later it flared with white light, nearly blinding him.

He could hear Teddie squeaking in fear off to the side.

A smirk started to pull at the corner of his mouth and he whispered, without conscious thought, “Persona.”

The card’s white light blazed into blue and expanded as a picture appeared in place of the pattern, but he couldn’t get a good look at it. Again without meaning to, but being urged toward it, Tsuna lifted up the card and crushed it in his hand.

The blue flames exploded upward, expanding, and he could sense something rising up behind him. That his family members each made sounds of surprise was almost to be expected.

As the Shadows rushed forward, Tsuna realized he was wearing a set of brass knuckles again.

“Stay calm and listen,” Teddie said from off to the side. “Some Shadows have weaknesses. I can tell this one has a weakness, but not what. If you can pinpoint that weakness and take advantage of it, the battle will be a lot easier! Try stuff out and see what works!”

He nearly scoffed. Just wing it? He realized very quickly that his flames were not on the menu. Literally. His eyes nearly bugged out when, of all things, a fucking menu (in bright yellow, no less) appeared in front of him, inviting him to investigate the following: Analysis, Tactics, Guard, Attack, Skill, Persona, Item, and Escape.

He glanced at the two enemies, which seemed perfectly content to bob in place. They had morphed from spooks to spheres, covered in black and pale pink stripes. The mask was on one side, but the other side had a massive mouth with red lips, very white teeth, and an abnormally long, black tongue that swished around.

‘Right,’ he thought dryly. Out of curiosity he focused on Skill, which shifted the menu to read: Zio, Cleave, and Rakukaja. They even had little help messages when he focused on each one, to explain what they did. ‘I’m starting to get a vague idea of who might actually be the Great Shuffler,’ he thought, then chose Zio from the list.

That caused him to lift his hand up again and crush a card that appeared. A figure was suddenly there and zapped the sphere (which he was calling a Rolling Stone in his head) with electricity. It promptly fell over as Weak! flashed up overhead. One more! The figure then vanished.

After a short pause he finally accepted that he was stuck, somehow, in turn-based combat, such as in some of the games he liked to play. And his flames? Not available! Awesome!

He looked to the side to see Teddie, who suddenly came to life and said, “I’ll keep track of what attacks have what effects on enemies!” then froze again.

A look around showed that his family were all standing there as if entranced, and an unfelt wind was ruffling their hair. ‘Have I finally flipped out, or is this really happening?’ he wondered. A look forward showed the one sphere on the ground, tongue lolling around, and the other one bobbed there, tongue also lolling around.

Tsuna rolled his eyes and prayed for sanity, then chose Skill, then—actually, there was a red ring around the downed sphere. He focused on the other one and noticed it switched over to that one. Then he chose Zio. He automatically crushed a card, the figure appeared, and electricity zapped the fucker, causing it to hit the ground.

Weak!

One more!

‘All right, so hitting a weakness gives me … an extra turn?’ He used Zio again. The sphere vanished in a puff of oily black smoke.

Weak!

One More!

Tsuna heaved a sigh and used Zio again, with the same result.

And then he got an overlay to his vision which showed he’d earned forty-four experience, ¥100, and two Medicine. Also, he increased his level to two.

Your Hit Points and Spirit Points have increased!

You are now able to create Personas up to level 2!

‘I’ve died and gone to hell.’ He turned around again, because he felt a strange presence there, and stared up at a very large version of the figure he had seen attacking for him.

You have faced your other self…

‘I don’t fucking see how,’ he thought snidely.

You have obtained the façade used to overcome life’s hardships, the Persona Izanagi!

“What the everloving fuck,” he said flatly.

“Did I hear you say ‘persona’?” Hayato asked.

As he nodded he heard Mukuro say, “Do you think we can do it, too?”

“Gosh almighty!” Teddie squealed before he could respond, flapping his little arms around excitedly. “You’re amazing, sensei! I am one impressed bear! I can’t believe you were hiding such amazing power! No wonder the Shadows were scared of you!”

He felt Sin’s hand on his neck, and his lover’s flames invaded him to check on his health. It was interesting, he supposed, that outside of battle, at least some flames were viable in this bizarre place.

“I wish Junes would go under. It’s all because of that store.”

“I am not the only one hearing that, right?” he asked.

“You’re not,” Sin said.

“Oh, I heard that Konishi-san’s daughter is working there.”

“Oh my… How could she, with her family’s business suffering like it is?”

It sounded like a group of housewives gossiping.

“I heard their sales have gone downhill because of Junes.”

“That poor father. To have his own daughter working for the enemy.”

“What a troublesome child.”

Inside the store everything was bathed in a blue light. Kegs were scattered around on the floor and other containers were stacked high, sometimes nonsensically high.

A man’s voice sounded. “Saki, how many times do I have to tell you!? You know what the neighbors say about you, right!? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You’re the eldest daughter of a family who’s owned this store for generations! Is it the money? Or did you meet some guy there? Just tell me why you have to work _there_ of all places!”

There was a picture on one of the tables. It showed Hanamura and Konishi, along with others. They were all wearing Junes aprons.

“I … never had a chance to say it,” a female voice said. “I always wanted to tell Hana-chan … that he was a real pain in the ass. I was nice to him just because he was the store manager’s son, that’s all. But he takes it completely the wrong way and gets all enthusiastic. What a dip. Who cares about Junes, anyway? Because of that store, our business is ruined, my parents hate me, the neighbors talk behind my back… I wish everything would just disappear.”

“It’s like … echoes of memories,” Mukuro said. “Presumably.”

Tsuna whipped around when his intuition prodded him sharply. Another Mukuro was standing there, but he was surrounded by a blue aura and his eyes were golden. His expression was one Tsuna had not seen in a very long time. It was scathing, sneering, and so tortured.

“Presumably,” it said. “Boo hoo, she had it soooo hard. And poor Hana-chan, longing so desperately for a girl to call his own, or a friend he could claim who understood his tortured existence.”

Mukuro eyed his shady-looking doppelgänger and smirked. “Come now, I do not normally speak such thoughts out loud. It would be far too crass and lacking in subtlety.”

“You got that right,” Sin muttered.

“Bunch of fucking heathens,” said a new voice. “God damn bastards are always gossiping about things they should leave the fuck alone and take a stab at actually making something of themselves, starting with being more concerned about their education and skills, and less with giggling over juicy scandals.”

“I’ll take Doppelgänger Hayato for two hundred,” Sin muttered, sharing a look with Tsuna.

“What the everloving fuck?” he said as he noticed a third entry into that day’s Totally Fucking Weird contest, a doppelgänger of Sin, who said, “I have to agree. All those useless children who never once bother to look to their futures and ensure they command attention with their skill and knowledge, and instead waste so much valuable time on useless twittering and the utterly inconsequential.”

Teddie looked highly confused.

“Am I going to have to mediate here, or…?” he asked.

“No need, Heul darling,” Mukuro said. “I am more than capable of dealing with this other me.”

“I am the Shadow, the True Self,” Doppelgänger Mukuro asserted, looking oh so very superior.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mukuro replied. “You are nothing more than the thoughts I _choose_ not to speak out loud. What, you think it would be wiser to appear as a complete asshole to everyone by recklessly spewing my thoughts all over the landscape when there are better, smoother, more politic ways to do so? And over such trivial things? Even then, I already know my family knows exactly the kinds of things I’d be thinking. No one needs you to state the obvious.”

Doppelgänger Mukuro took on a confused look much like Teddie’s.

“Gonna have to agree there,” Hayato said, eyeing his doppelgänger. “There is a time and a place for such thoughts being out in the open, and I don’t appreciate some aspect of myself thinking it’s the thing to do to be a bitchy child and potentially damage my relationships when I, myself, can find far better ways to raise any issues of consequence that might be bothering me.”

Sin snorted. “You somehow seem to think I’m unaware of the knowledge that I’m an utter snob, highly critical of people, and not afraid to say it. What point do you think you’re making here?”

“It might just be me, but I’m starting to wonder if these guys are … like Shadows?”

“Yes!” Teddie cried. “You have to accept them, or … they’ll go bear-serk.”

Sin shot a confused look at the bear. “We already accept them. It’s not like we’re afraid or embarrassed by any of this.”

“Oh…”

The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest…

Tsuna rolled his eyes and only hoped his family were seeing the same words wavering in front of them.

Each of the three doppelgängers shifted form to more of those peculiar, large figures, one hovering in front of each of his friends.

“Huh, it seems my, ah, Persona is named Ichinomiya Kantarō,” Sin said, a card appearing in his hand.

“Mine is Aso Daisuke,” Hayato reported, followed by Mukuro saying, “Shido Tatsuhiko.”

“We are clearly going to have to do some research,” he said. “If you three were confronted by some aspect of your, er, inner selves, is it possible that Konishi was faced with the same, except … she didn’t take it so well?”

“And was attacked?” Mukuro said, examining his card.

“I think so,” Teddie said. “The Shadows here were originally born from humans. Sometimes the fog clears. Then they all go bear-serk. A strong-willed Shadow draws others to it. And the big mass of Shadows … kills the host?”

“Which would explain exactly why people who get thrown in here die when it gets foggy on our side,” Sin said.

“We were confronted now,” Hayato said. “So… If we hadn't been accepting, we’d have been tormented by these Shadow Selves, and eventually ripped to shreds, once the fog here cleared.”

“Which means it’s damn likely that if we bring the others in, the same thing will happen,” he said. “Why I wasn’t confronted the same way…”

The three of them looked at him.

“You are special, darling,” Mukuro said. “Always have been.”

“This world isn’t made for humans. It’s not comfortable for you here. I don’t hear any more voices. I think we’re done with this place. Let’s go back.”

The walk back to the “studio” was quiet as everyone assimilated all the weirdness that had just happened, plus the new information.

“Teddie,” he said, “you said that this place is reality for people who enter, correct?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So the shopping district, that hotel room we saw before… They existed because of the ones who were thrown in, it became their reality…?”

“I don’t know,” Teddie replied slowly. “It’s never happened before. But that’s probably where they were when the Shadows attacked them. The fog does lift here sometimes. The Shadows get really violent then. I always get so scared. I have to hide when it happens! I sensed people here twice before. But both of them disappeared after the fog lifted.”

It was like speaking with a child. “To clarify. Yamano and Konishi were thrown in here, and since they had no way out, they wandered around. After a while, a Shadow emerged from them. The fog cleared, it went bear-se—sorry, berserk—and it ended up killing them. So if we hadn't met you, and been given a way out, we would have been in far deeper trouble.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. You were lucky I found you! They disappeared when the fog lifted. But they were safe before that. No Shadows attacked them. They attacked us, though…” Teddie looked confused, or possibly concerned. “Maybe they’ve been keeping a close eye on us? They might see people who investigate this place as enemies? It’ll be dangerous, but we might be able to fight them! We might be able to save people!”

“So if we notice someone on the Midnight Channel, we could enter on purpose,” Sin said, “find that person, and save them from certain death. Presumably.”

Tsuna nodded. “Sounds about right.”

“Um… Hey, can I ask something?” Teddie said, manifesting what Tsuna recognized as his version of “puppy eyes”. “If Shadows are born from humans, what was Teddie born from?”

“That’s a damn good question,” Mukuro said. “You don’t know anything about yourself?”

“I never thought about it before now,” Teddie admitted. “Will you guys … come back here?”

“We did promise,” Tsuna reminded him. “So yes.”

“You’ll … keep your word?”

Tsuna nodded. “But to come back we must first leave.”

“Oh! Right! I’ll be waiting here, so you should come in the same way each time, so we can meet up. You could come in from somewhere else, but then you might not end up here! You might show up somewhere I couldn’t get to you. Then you’d be dooooooomed. Got it!?”

Tsuna nodded again, not seeing the point in arguing based on evidence they already had.

“One exit comin’ right up!” Teddie said happily, and tapped his foot twice. The same TV stack appeared. “Okay! Go go go!” he cried, tumbling forward to start pushing. “Squiiiiiish!”


	4. λ21: 04: 15-19 April 2011

## λ21  
04: 15-19 April 2011

####  15 April 2011, Friday

Tsuna was helped up by Daemon, who looked far too anxious for his own good, but also incredibly relieved. “Time for a pensive memory,” his brother declared, indicating the one on the table.

Tsuna smiled and pulled a memory, then placed it in the device.

All of them went in. Once they were back out it was discussion time. Or rather, discussion time for them, because if Tsuna didn’t get going, he would be too late to make dinner, again. “I’ll open a window tonight,” he said, “and we can share anything we’ve come up with.”

Daemon smothered him in affection for a good minute, then let him go.

On the way to the Dojima residence Tsuna noticed a girl with long black hair sitting in a gazebo. She was wearing a pink kimono and had a red umbrella propped against the bench she was on. A closer look revealed it to be Amagi-san.

She noticed him and looked curious, so he checked his watch, saw he had a bit more time yet, and wandered over to say hello.

“Are you surprised to see me dressed this way?” she asked. “My parents sent me out on an errand.”

‘Which does not explain why you’re sitting here instead of doing said errand,’ he thought.

“Um, are you getting used to your new town and school?”

“It has a peaceful atmosphere, which is nice. The school? I’m not sure yet.”

“Really? But… It must be difficult, moving to a place you know nothing about. I’ve never been outside of Inaba, so I wouldn’t know what it’s like to transfer to a new school. Oh! Are you getting along with Chie? I mean, I always leave early, so…”

He wanted to avoid that question entirely, though he wouldn’t. “Inaba is a little smaller than where I lived before, and I admit there’s not as much to do here. Chie-san seems nice, very energetic.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Chie’s very supportive, you know. It’s always her who gives me the little extra push I need. We had homeroom together last year, too, and I still remember how we’d cut class sometimes. Oh… I should get going. I need to make tomorrow’s arrangements with our head chef. Our inn can’t function without me right now. Um… I’ll see you at school, then.”

“I wish you a pleasant evening,” he said.

He arrived back at the Dojima residence in time to smoothly start rustling up dinner. Nanako had come into the kitchen area with a look of hunger, but the girl diverted to getting out dinnerware and hashi rather than frying an egg or something.

“Shopping Sunday morning?” he asked her as he prepared a simple stir fry.

“Okay.”

As before, he was making enough for three, though he had doubts about Dojima getting home on time to eat any fresh out of the wok.

“Dad’s late,” Nanako announced as they sat in front of the TV.

“Our next story is an update in our ongoing report on the bizarre murders occurring in Inaba. At around 7.00am, local high school student Konishi Saki was found dead in Inaba’s residential area. Since the body was positioned similarly to the last victim, and since Konishi-san was the one who discovered the body… Police are proceeding under the assumption that this may be a serial murder case related to the death of Yamano Mayumi. The coroner’s report has established Konishi-san’s time of death at around 1.00am last night. The body went unnoticed until this morning as a result of the heavy fog blanketing the area.”

“Another incident,” Nanako said sadly. “Dad won’t be coming home tonight.”

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “Should we leave the extra in the fridge for him? Or try to eat it ourselves?”

“…I don’t think I can eat more than this,” she said, indicating her serving.

He nodded. “I’ll put it in the fridge, then. If I get hungry again before bed, I can always heat it up quickly.”

“Can you help me do some stuff around the house once we’re done?”

“Of course, Nanako-chan.”

“—Amagi Inn, located upstream of Samegawa River, is the town’s oldest historical landmark. Vacationers are known to travel surprising distances in order to visit its open-air, radium-rich hot springs. After the incident with Yamano-san, the manager has stepped aside, leaving her daughter Yukiko to fill her shoes.”

The image changed to show Yukiko on-screen, wearing the kimono Tsuna had seen her in earlier. She must have run into a station crew after they parted.

“In other words, she’s a manager who’s still in high school. Now that has a nice ring to it. Let’s see if we can interview her. Excuse me!”

“Hm…? Um… Are you speaking to me?”

“We’ve heard that you’re the new manager of Amagi Inn. Is it true that you’re still in high school?

“Oh, well, I’m only filling in temporarily…”

“Someday, though… That aside, wow! You’re looking gorgeous in that kimono. You must have a lot of male visitors.”

“Huh? No, um…”

Tsuna was more than a little disgusted by the reporter’s invasive questions and how they went further and further off the original subject.

“This is boring,” Nanako eventually said. “Will you help me with the dishes?”

“Sure. Do you want to wash or dry?”

“So,” he said, taking care to speak in Spanish again.

“The weather report says it’ll be raining all night,” Ken said. “We need to be watching this Midnight Channel thing.”

“I agree.” He could hear the sound of rain already against the window and pattering on the roof. “If it keeps happening, we’ll at least have a clue who might be thrown in next.”

“It also means we gotta keep an eye on all weather reports,” Hayato said. “If we ever get notice that the fog is supposed to roll in here…”

“And someone’s in there,” Chikusa added.

“Again, agreed. We have no idea how these people are being chosen, who’s behind it, or if any or all of them would even warrant a death sentence. That being so, I’m going to assume innocents are being targeted and that we need to rescue them. And I have yet to have found a moment to go buy a new TV,” he complained.

Xeul rolled his eyes. “I’ll take care of it, Heul darling, and have it delivered.”

“On a side note, I expect if we all went in, the rest of you would obtain these Persona things.”

A round of nods happened.

“I was completely unable to utilize my flames—or, I suspect, my magic—during that battle. I assume you all saw that weird, ah, interface I did?”

“Uh-huh. Looked like something out of a video game,” Mukuro commented.

“And yet, I was able to use my flames to check your health,” Sin said.

“Out of battle,” he pointed out. “I did try using Earth Flames to cushion our landing, but given how weird our arrival is, I couldn’t be sure if they actually helped.”

“We’ll have to test some things,” Daemon said, looking resigned, “the next time. Because I’ve no doubt there will be a next time. Probably plenty of them.”

They talked for a while longer, then he went downstairs to heat up the leftovers. He had quite an appetite for some reason, and Dojima had yet to come home. He was just finishing up his meal when programming for the night came to its conclusion.

“In other Inaba-related news, meteorologists are predicting heavy fog throughout the year. The region has seen an abnormal amount of fog over the past few years, and the cause of the climate change is unknown. Whatever the reason, residents of the Inaba area should be extra careful. Our broadcast tonight was extended to bring you up-to-date news on the incident in Inaba. The time is now midnight.”

He hit the off button on the remote and waited. Seconds later an image appeared, that of a woman wearing a kimono, but the image was so out of focus he couldn’t pinpoint who it represented. He thought he saw the barest hint of pink, but that might be wishful thinking considering his encounter on the way home.

As a test he touched the screen, and as his fingers sank into it the image disappeared.

“Something to talk about tomorrow,” he decided, then bussed his dishes downstairs, quickly washed them, and went to bed.

####  16 April 2011, Saturday

“Welcome … to the Velvet Room,” he heard, which cause Tsuna to open his eyes to the sight of that limousine again. “Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams.”

‘Which makes me think alarmingly of Kawahira.’

“And so we meet again. This is a space that only those who have, in one way or another, entered into a contract may enter,” Igor reminded him. “In your daily life, you subconsciously heard the call to awaken, and you chose to follow the destiny of your inner voice … thereby enacting your glorious awakening to your power. Hold on to this,” Igor said, extending a key toward him.

Tsuna took it; it was blue. What a shock.

“From this night forth, you are our guest in this Velvet Room. Your destiny will require you to hone your power, and for that, you will inevitably need our help. There is but one price for this assistance. You must abide by your contract and assume responsibility for all decisions you may make.” Igor and Margaret both looked at him expectantly.

“I understand.”

“Very well. The Persona you have acquired… It is a side of yourself that shows itself when you face the world around you. Perhaps you can think of it as … a façade of determination you wear to face various difficulties in life. Your Persona ability, however, is that of the wild card. Compared to that of others, it is very special. It is like the number zero, empty, yet holding infinite possibilities within itself.”

“…Special?” And where was Sin or Hayato when he needed an explanation about mathematics?

“The Persona ability is the power to control one’s own heart. And the heart is strengthened through bonds. As you form bonds by becoming involved with others, your own Social Links will gradually develop. The power of these Social Links is what will determine your Persona’s abilities.”

Tsuna blinked. “Control one’s heart?” he asked in disbelief.

“Social Links are necessary for more than strengthening your Persona,” Margaret said. “At times, they will help light the way to the truth you are searching for.”

“Where will your awakened power of the wild card take you?” Igor said. “I look forward to traveling the road of your destiny together.” The creepy man chuckled, as if over some private joke Tsuna was not going to be clued into. “Until we meet again…”

When he woke up for real it was perilously close to when he would have to leave, so he booked it to the bathroom to get in a shower, opening a window long enough to let the others know he was running late and wouldn’t be over that morning. Nanako had breakfast ready by the time he got downstairs, so he ate, helped her clean up, and booked it to the usual meeting point.

His family shot inquiring looks at him.

“Another dream,” he said quietly. “Which sucks, because, no homemade bentos.”

They sighed unhappily.

Along the way Yosuke caught up to them on his bike. “You saw what was on last night, right? I couldn’t tell who it was, though.”

“I’m afraid I went to bed early,” Tsuna blatantly lied.

“Oh…” Yosuke looked at the others, but they shook their heads.

For a diversion Tsuna engaged Yosuke in a discussion of his adaptation to Inaba and how it fared compared to his previous residence. They were nearly at the school when he heard that damn voice again, right after Yosuke declared he was going to try harder to accept the good aspects of living in Inaba.

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana.

‘Right,’ he thought. ‘Am I wrong to think that was somehow connected to the kid’s declaration of resolve?’

Chie dashed over once they were at 2-2 and stared at Yosuke. “Is Yukiko still not here?”

“Huh? Yukiko-san? Uh, no? At least, I haven’t seen her yet this morning.”

“Oh man, what should I do?” Chie said, working herself up to a fine panic. “I’m starting to worry that stuff is real!”

“What are you talking about?” Yosuke said.

Tsuna settled in at his desk and did his best to blend in and be uninteresting.

“You know. All that about how people show up on the Midnight Channel? The person on the TV last night… I think it was Yukiko. The kimono I saw looked a lot like the one she wears at the inn, a-and she wore it during the interview the other day, too. I got so worried, so I emailed her last night, but she hasn’t responded. I called her earlier in the evening, though, and she said she’d be at school today. I…”

“Didn’t she say in that interview that she was filling in?” Hayato said calmly. “Maybe it’s been crazy over there and she just hasn’t had a chance to check her email. Did she say she’d be in for morning classes specifically? Have you tried calling this morning?”

“Uh…” Chie lost some of her look of panic and whipped out her phone, then dialed. Thirty seconds later she said, “No good, her voicemail picked up. She’s not answering.”

“And if she’s working at the moment?” Hayato said, clearly trying to lead the girl to an answer on her own.

“Yeah, she wouldn’t be able to pick up her cell phone if she was. Let me try the inn phone. I have it here somewhere…” She dialed again, restlessly shifting from foot to foot. “Oh, is this Yukiko!? …Uh-huh. …Uh-huh. …I see. …Hm? …Oh. Nah, it was nothing. I’ll email you again later.” Chie disconnected and tucked her phone away. “Yeah, she was over at the inn. She said they had a big group reservation and she had to help out. Yeah, now that I think about it, this has happened before. At least once a year. She said she’ll be at the inn tomorrow, too. Uh-oh, King Moron is coming…”

He brought the others up to speed about his dream after school, at the Rokudo house.

“That guy is super creepy,” Mukuro opined after watching a pensieve memory. “And the girl? She’s a cold fish.”

“Mm, but considering we don’t know _what_ they are, that almost makes sense. Also, I somehow managed to initiate a Social Link with Hanamura on the way to school.” He got a number of disbelieving looks for that, then confused shrugs. “I think it might have been his resolve. Not sure why him, aside from the fact that he’s been, presumably, deeply affected by the object of his affections kicking it. Which then leads me to wonder if Social Links are more about me playing therapist than…”

Sin wrinkled his nose at the idea. “Well, you are a Sky, tesoro. It almost goes with the territory.”

“I had a thought,” Ken said. “You three gained Personas. Try poking your fingers into the TV, see what happens?”

A look bounced around for a moment, then everyone got up and trundled over to the television. One by one the three tried, and one by one each of them managed to sink their fingers in.

“Speaking of which,” Tsuna said. “Let me try something.” He stuck his hand in and made a beckoning motion, hoping to attract Teddie’s attention. He knew he had succeeded when something bit him. He snatched his hand back and stared at it; there were bite marks. Sin quickly moved to fix that.

“Oya!” Mukuro said at the TV. “What’s the idea, bear?”

“Oo! Is this a game?” issued from the screen.

“No, it is not a game,” Tsuna said. “I was trying to get your attention so we could ask a question. Can you sense anyone over there right now?”

“Who’s ‘anyone’? I’m a lonely little bear like always. This land feels so bear-ren.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes, which was slightly hypocritical, because he loved puns. “You haven’t sensed any person being thrown in, correct?”

“My nose is as good as ever!” Teddie declared proudly.

“All right. We have reason to suspect a person might be thrown in soon, so we’ll get back to you.”

Tsuna headed to the kitchen to make himself a snack, mostly to compensate for having to eat lunch bought from the school cafeteria. “Hopefully I can be here for a good part of Sunday so I can spend some time baking,” he muttered. He was very annoyed that one of his primary relaxation activities was mostly denied to him.

“A good part?” Daemon asked, having sneaked up behind him to see what he was doing.

“I told Nanako-chan I would do the shopping with her in the morning, probably every Sunday morning, since that’s the only free one. I can come over after, relax, spend time with all of you…”

It was raining again. If there was one thing truly odd about Inaba, it was that weather forecasts so far had been dead on. That night’s image was startlingly clear, like an actual show. Yukiko was there, dressed in a pink ballgown, holding a pink microphone, and looking like she was hopped up on happy drugs.

“Good evening,” she said. “Tonight, Princess Yukiko has a big surprise. I’m gonna go score myself a hot stud! Welcome to ‘Not a Dream, Not a Hoax’. Princess Yukiko’s hunt for her Prince Charming. And I came prepared!”

Tsuna’s eyes went wide when the camera cut to a shot of her pressing one hand against her nether region.

“I’ve got my lacy unmentionables on—”

The camera cut to her cleavage.

“—stacked from top to bottom. I’m out to catch a whole harem of the best. The lot is gonna be all mine! Well, here I go!” The camera cut to a shot of her dashing toward one of those black and red portals, set into a massive building—a castle? The path was lined with rearing horse statues. For some reason.

The image winked out and Tsuna was left with a cold, dark screen again.

“Well, that happened,” he said to the window that winked open.

“We’ll discuss it tomorrow, after you’re done shopping?” Sin asked.

“Yep. See you then, schatz.”

Sin blew him a kiss and the window winked out again.

####  17 April 2011, Sunday

“Oh, good morning,” Nanako said as he hit the bottom of the stairs.

“I almost didn’t expect you to be up so early today.”

“Dad woke up early, and I woke up with him,” she said.

Tsuna nodded. “Let’s get breakfast, then do the shopping.” He was not the least bit surprised when Sin showed up to smoothly blend into their expedition as they walked through the doors to Junes, ostensibly to help carry any purchases back to the Dojima residence. Nanako, after being introduced, gave Sin the same kind of dubious looks as she had Tsuna originally, but refrained from commenting.

Once Nanako was safely escorted home and the groceries tucked away, he and Sin set out for the other house and arrived in good time (mainly due to ducking into a blind corner and stepping over).

“I think what we saw last night strongly suggests that Amagi was tossed in,” Chikusa said. “The sheer clarity of the ‘broadcast’ has to mean something, after all.”

“Do we all go in this time?” Xeul asked. “Or stick to the original four? My preference is that we all go in, so we’re all capable of dealing with this … situation.”

“Did anyone get a weather forecast this morning?” Tsuna asked. “It would help if we knew when the next fog bank is going to roll in.”

“The normal conditions which produce fog might not work the same way here. There’s clearly something supernatural going on, which potentially changes the rules,” Hayato pointed out.

“So far,” Daemon said, “we’ve had fog after a rainy night. That being said, we should be clear for at least the next week. We’ll still need to keep a close eye on what the news has to say, though.”

“I vote we all go in,” Ken said. “If we can all fight under these peculiar circumstances, we can switch around to conserve health and, ah, whatchamacallit … Spirit Points. We don’t know what the rules are with regard to topping those off, except for any past experience in turn-based games. So, generally speaking, items rather than a constant regenerative effect.”

“Excellent point,” Mukuro said. “I also vote we all go in. And, since Sin was able to use his Sun Flames to check your health out of combat, Heul darling, he might be able to heal out of combat, as well as Ken, which would certainly help.”

Tsuna nodded. “Right. Let me prepare by making up some food to take with us…”

While he was doing that his twins decided to give him a summary of what they were calling _CSI: Inaba_ , having been following Dojima around with a window and spying on the police station.

“To date: there is no known cause of death for Yamano, and likewise nothing on Konishi. To them it was like the two simply stopped living, or to a magical that they were hit with the Killing Curse. It’s been established that both Hiiragi and Namatame had solid alibis, with eyewitnesses placing them well away from Inaba at the time of Yamano’s death.

“There’s also nothing to show that Yamano contacted Namatame before or after her disappearance. On a side note, Namatame has been fired from his position as secretary, which isn’t all that surprising.

“Dojima doesn’t believe the motive behind Konishi’s death had to do with Yamano’s killer trying to shut her up, but his kohai, Adachi, hasn’t ruled out that Konishi saw something on or about Yamano’s corpse that put her at risk. The only link so far, aside from the two victims being female, is that Konishi attended the same school as Amagi and that Yamano stayed at the Amagi Inn.”

“Pretty damn thin connection,” he commented.

“Falls under ‘grasping at straws’ I’d say,” Xeul replied. “We’ll continue to keep an eye on things, since we’re not the ones stuck being students.”

Tsuna pouted at him, then finished up his work. “Right, let’s go.”

Those who could (enter the TV on their own) dragged along those who could not, and shortly thereafter all eight of them were picking themselves up off the studio floor.

His twins, Chikusa, and Ken looked quite annoyed at the oppressive fog, whereas Tsuna noticed he was wearing the glasses Teddie had given him without even noticing, which begged the question: did they go into a pocket dimension while he was in the real world, only to pop into place once he entered the TV World?

Teddie was there, but he was facing away and seemed to be deep in contemplation of … something.

“Hello, Teddie,” Tsuna said. “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell?” the bear said as he turned around. “I’m thinking about stuff. I’ve been deli-bear-ating over it for a long time now.” He giggled like Lambo on too much sugar. “Hey, that wasn’t a bad joke!”

“Did you figure anything out?”

“No.” Teddie’s expression switched to downcast. “I try and try but nothing comes out of my head.” Then he realized that someone was different. “Oh! More of you?”

Introductions went around.

“It’ll take me some time to make more glasses,” Teddie informed them, to no one’s surprise.

Tsuna nodded. “Someone came here yesterday, right?”

“I think it happened a little after I talked with you guys. After that, it felt like someone was here, but I haven’t gone to look yet. The presence is over that way. That’s probably where they are.”

“Will you show us the way?” he asked.

“Sure!” Teddie said cheerfully and skittered off.

The castle was the same as from the “show”, and it was impressively large from the outside. Inside was a hallway. A standard red runner carpet (edged in gold), marble flooring underneath, with plenty of wood accents and gold-edged red curtains or wall hangings. There was enough fog inside to obscure any distance. They didn’t get far before they ran into more of those amorphous Shadows, which made a beeline for them the second they were noticed.

Tsuna was graced with that set of brass knuckles again, without him having to do a thing, much like his glasses. Sin had a gun, Hayato had throwing knives (that never seemed to run out), and Mukuro sported a trident. Tsuna shrugged and set to bashing in the faces of the enemies. Based on what little Teddie had said, he had to assume Shadows were the negative emotions or desires of human beings manifested into dangerous “creatures” of a sort.

Shades of Jung and Freud and all that came to mind. In a way, it was rather like they were wandering around in the collective unconscious of humanity.

It was interesting, he thought, that each of his companions had distinct abilities. For example, Mukuro had a skill he could use called Pulpina, which apparently had a good chance to “confuse” an enemy. Considering that Mukuro was a Mist primary…

Sin had access to Mudo and Hama, attacks with a chance for an instant kill, which were Dark and Light attacks respectively. They learned very quickly that Sin could tear through normal encounters, with a major downside of quickly running out of “Spirit Points”.

It was also interesting that some of the enemies they encountered, once brought low enough on health, would initiate a conversation in an attempt to escape “death”. Negotiations could bring about several results: money, items, or a new Persona for Tsuna’s arsenal.

Considering that both Igor and the interface kept yammering on about Personas plural with regard to him, Tsuna did not find that aspect of things to be particularly surprising. It made him, once he had gathered up enough of them, incredibly versatile in battle within the restrictions placed upon them what with being able to swap which Persona he was using at the start of his turn.

Tsuna let his intuition guide their path, which led them to various chests to open, and which contained items, weapons, or armor.

It wasn’t all that long—for a given definition of long in a place where the perception of the passage of time was wonky as fuck—before they entered a room on the second floor and were confronted with four Shadow Selves. Once that was cleared up (Daemon: Nōgami Neuro; Xeul: Suzuhara Satoshi; Chikusa: Toma So; Ken: Kudō Shinichi) and Tsuna saw that half his family was looking quite peaky and prone to something unfortunate, he made a command decision to retreat for the day.

“It’s not supposed to rain for some time,” he said, “so we have at least a few days to handle this.” He was gratified that no one outright objected, though it was clear his fellow “students” would have preferred to continue on.

Sin did his best to ease their nausea on the way back to the studio exit, with only fair success.

“I think I’m going to have a lie down,” Daemon declared once they were back at the house.

“The rest of us could go check out that metalworks shop,” Sin suggested. “They might have something interesting for sale. If not we already know where we can get better weapons than what we were given on the other side.”

“Starter weapons never are all that good in video games,” Hayato said. “But let’s have a snack first. Going by the time we weren’t there all that long, but I’m surprisingly hungry.”

Daemon waved absently and wandered off, followed by Xeul, Chikusa, and Ken, so Tsuna and the rest ate and headed for the shopping district.

Daidara’s Metalworks was brimming with weapons and armor of all kinds on racks, shelves, and in display cases. They also had accessories, and through the lens of Protagonist Powers—for Tsuna that meant seeing all sorts of additional information about various items, like little notes written in runes—he was able to determine the best of the lot to purchase, and did so, for all eight of them.

Sin, of course, was very put out. He could not just use his favorite gun and be done with it, no.

A quick step to Italy revealed that the weapons there had no such “tags” and counted as bog standard starter weapons.

“Maybe there’s a god involved,” Mukuro mused. “How else could rules like this, and Social Links, bleed over into the normal world?”

“Given that there’s no quantitative proof either way, it’s as good an explanation as any,” he said. “I admit, I have yet to get around to checking if I can access my storage on the other side, so for now, let’s leave all this at the house, ready to go for the next time.”

It was about then that he noticed an odd, glowing blue door, right next to Daidara’s. “I’m the only one seeing this, aren’t I.”

“Considering I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’d say yes,” Sin said helpfully.

“Yeah, figured as much. Hang tight for a few. I’m gonna check this out,” he said, then approached the door. Lo and behold, he needed that blue key from earlier to open it. He stepped through, straight into the limousine known as the Velvet Room. ‘I’m starting to wonder if at this point I could actually deliberately step between dimensions without harming myself or others.’

“So it finally begins,” Igor said in his creepy too-high-pitched voice. “Now, if you’ll give me a moment of your time, we have been expecting you. The catastrophe that is headed your way… It has already taken human lives in its approach toward you, but you have nothing to fear. You already have the power to fight against it. It seems that the time for you to use your Persona has come.” He chuckled, which made the “man” seem like something straight out of a horror movie involving creepy clowns.

“Your Persona ability is that of the wild card,” Margaret helpfully reminded him. “If you strengthen your bonds properly, their power will help you overcome any ordeal. Our role is to facilitate that.”

Igor took over again. “My contribution … is to give birth to new Personas. By mixing together multiple Persona cards, I can transmute them into a new form. This, in other words, is the fusion of Persona. You have the power to hold multiple Personas and to use them accordingly.

“When you defeat an enemy, the seeds of possibility you attain will appear before you as cards. At times, they may be hard to grasp, but you must master your fear and reach out to them. When you obtain new cards, please do not hesitate to bring them here.

“If you have been developing your Social Links, then your Personas will gain even more power. They will be one of your chief sources of strength. You would do well to take this to heart.”

Tsuna shook his head and finally said something. “You make it sound like a Social Link will directly buff a Persona I already have.”

Igor smiled. “That explanation is a discussion for another time.”

“The tome you see in my hand,” Margaret said, briefly shifting the thing, “is the Persona Compendium. Registering the Personas you hold will allow you to recall them at any time. Please see me when you wish to use it.”

Igor chuckled again. “Do you recall my words to you before? ‘The coming year is a turning point in your destiny. If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost.’ I meant precisely what I said. Defeat in battle is not the only way your journey may come to an end. Please do not forget this. When next we meet, you will come here of your own will. I look forward to it. Until then … farewell.”

The next thing he knew he was back outside Daidara’s, and his family was looking at him expectantly. He shook his head and said, “Let’s check on the others first.”

The others had recovered, so it seemed, so Tsuna shared his memory of the his visit to the Velvet Room.

“Nice dodge there,” Sin said. “I’m going to vote no on direct buffs. I expect it comes into play during this fusion process he speaks of.”

“So Magician right now,” Hayato said. “You’d get a boost fusing new cards in the … Magician Arcana?”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Daemon said. “So, are we all resolved to do this? Save the girl?”

“I am,” Ken said. “True, we’ve not poked around in her head or anything, but I doubt she deserves death for some instance of youthful stupidity.”

“Yeah, I mean, the chick’s kinda distracted and shit, but that’s not a crime,” Hayato opined.

“So, all in favor?”

Hands went up, and Tsuna promptly face-palmed when that voice came to him again.

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana.

“Which one?” Chikusa asked.

“Fool Arcana.”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Hayato said, frowning thoughtfully. “What arcana is your starting Persona?”

“The Fool,” he said, wondering what his Storm was getting at.

“I’m going to assume you never bothered reading up on that stuff, but with this evidence…”

“Get to the point,” Sin said testily.

Hayato scowled at the Sun. “The major arcana tell a kind of a story: the Fool’s Journey. The Fool is the card of beginnings. Along the way he meets various people—the other major arcana, like Magician for Hanamura—faces various trials and hazards, supposedly learns things about himself, has to make decisions, sacrifices, accept change, resist temptation… There’s some shit at the end about how the Sun dispels confusion and fear, brings enlightenment, and the Fool is reborn, and gains the World.

“Isn’t it interesting that the first Social Link you got was Magician, when that’s one of the first two people the Fool encounters? And of course, your starter Persona plus the link that apparently has to do with us as a group is the Fool? I’m going to assume in this case that the World represents success, and that obtaining it means we’d have to figure out who’s behind all of this and deal with it.”

Sin preened briefly over the Sun description, being the vainglorious bastard he could be at times, then said, “It’s certainly a thing. How many major arcana?”

“Twenty one, technically twenty-two. The Fool is considered zero, since it’s the starting point.”

Tsuna groaned at the very idea of establishing links or bonds with so many new people. And what if—

Xeul seemed to know where that line of thought was going and said, “I doubt any of those links would have an impact when we next get shuffled, darling. Think of it like… Well, like how in some cases belief trumps truth, or how belief makes so many things possible with flames or magic. A bolstering effect, if you will.”

“Still doesn’t change that I might end up having to navigate my way through therapy sessions with a bunch of strangers,” he complained. “And I’ll say it right now, next dimension had better be a fucking holiday. I’ll have more than deserved it if this is what I have to look forward to. Fuck. Well, I need to get going if I intend to make sure my cousin eats a decent dinner. We’ll go back in tomorrow.”

Sin walked back with him so they could have some alone time of a sort.

“That reminds me, with all this weirdness going on, has anyone had a chance to take a look at the usual?” he asked.

“I think that pretty well flew straight out of everyone’s minds,” Sin replied. “I’ll bring it up when I get back. We really should get an update on various defects, but until we take care of this other thing…”

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I suppose it can wait, but some of us do have time during the day to at least peek in. Mention it, anyway, please. I’m tempted to start using my, ah… Doubling up, shall we say,” he amended, as there were there other people out walking around who might overhear.

“Not sure I want to know of the possible complications of secondary time on extracurricular activities, but I suppose if we did the one, then doubled back for the normal stuff…”

“It’s a thought. See what the others think?”

He got back in time to start dinner, and was amused at just how attentively and seriously Nanako watched him cook and absorbed what he was saying about why he did things a certain way. Surprisingly, Dojima showed up in time to eat with them, so they settled in at the living area table to watch the news.

“That’s all for world news tonight. Coming up next, the local news.”

Dojima shot him a look he couldn’t for the life of him interpret. “Hey, mind if I ask something? I do feel bad that I’ve been too caught up with work for us to have time to talk. Are you … settling in all right? Any problems? Things I should know about?”

Tsuna blinked in confusion. He had already taken to thinking of his uncle a bit like the way he did his mother—that was to say, as some alien species or robot—so this concern was coming out of left field for him.

“No, it’s not terribly different, and my friends are here.”

“Friends?” Dojima asked, frowning. “What friends?”

“We went to school together in Namimori, before their father moved them to Tokyo because of his work. He later moved them all here, so we can hang out again rather than always using email and texts. Nanako-chan met Sen when he decided to come help us carry the shopping this morning.”

Nanako nodded, attention mostly focused on the TV and whatever local minutiae the reporter was droning on about.

“…I see. I agreed to look after you, so don’t go getting yourself involved in anything that could get you in trouble. Got that?”

“And now, our weather forecast,” was said into the ensuing silence. “Due to high-pressure fronts from the west, that sunny spring-like weather will stay with us for a while longer.”

“Is this lady the one who decides the weather?” Nanako asked. “ ’Cause when she says that it’ll be sunny, it always is.”

“Uh, she’s not really deciding it… Never mind,” Dojima said lamely.

‘How adorable. Not only does it seem like I’m suspect for being a bastard, but my friends are suspect for what? Being friends with a bastard child? Or having lived in Tokyo? Kami-sama.’

####  18 April 2011, Monday

Chie, after her panic on Saturday, was calm in class. Odds were she had assumed her friend Yukiko was still swamped at the Amagi Inn and hadn't thought twice about not speaking to her recently. To further distract the girl, Tsuna said, “Have you ever gone into that store in the shopping district, Daidara’s Metalworks?”

“Huh? Why?”

“You seem to be a fan of martial arts,” he replied. “He’s got some interesting things in there, like shin guards, fist weapons…” He went on for a while, describing some of what he had seen in there, much to her obvious interest, and the next thing he knew he had initiated a Social Link for the Chariot Arcana.

He shrugged it off as something he would simply have to get used to, but felt a sense of conflicted relief when Morooka-sensei stormed into the room for yet another round of ranting about idiot children and “back in my day” speeches.

Thankfully the day passed quickly—half-zoning through most of it helped—and they convened at the Rokudo house. Once again, Tsuna prepared bentos in case they got hungry, though he hoped he would be able to access his storage on the other side.

Teddie had more sets of glasses to pass out before they returned to the castle and, once they arrived and stepped inside, the bear made an odd sound. “Sensei, can I bother you for a second?”

Tsuna nodded, curious as to what was bothering the bear.

“I’m sensing that the path here seems different from yesterday, so this place might get pretty tricky. I’ll do my best to remember where we’ve walked, but try not to get lost. Anyway, I don’t sense anyone around this area. If you get higher up, we might be able to find something.”

He looked over his shoulder. “Sounds like a procedurally-generated dungeon, which kinda sucks.”

“No help for it,” Ken said.

“Mm. Let’s go, then.” Clearly, Teddie was not aware that Tsuna had the advantage of interface maps to give him some sense of where they had yet to go.

The ground floor layout was indeed different, which made him wonder if it changed—no, it could not change once exited and re-entered, because when they retreated previously the ground floor had no surprises. So, the trigger was leaving the castle? Or possibly leaving the TV World.

2F had something new where they had previously had a Shadow Self confrontation. Princess Yukiko was there, facing away from them.

“Amagi-san?” Tsuna asked carefully.

The girl chuckled in a disturbingly mature way and turned to face them. “Oh my! Special guests? I wonder how they’ll play into all this!” She chuckled again. “Things are really heating up! Okie-dokie! I’m going back to the hunt for my Prince Charming! Ohhh, where could he be…? This place is huge! It’s sooo exciting, but it makes it so hard to find him! Ooh! Maybe he’s playing hide-and-seek in the fog! Ready or not, here I come! Let’s go further in, shall we!?”

Tsuna blinked when an overlay popped up showing off a rainbow swoop, too much glitter, and the words: _Princess Yukiko’s Hunt For Her Prince Charming!_

“Where is the other Yukiko?” Chikusa asked mildly. “The one who was thrown in.”

Teddie squeaked. “The Shadows are getting agitated!” he warned.

“Well, I’m off again!” Shadow Yukiko chirped, then giggled. “You’d better be waiting with bells on, my dear Prince!” She turned and dashed off.

“If what Teddie says holds true, the real one isn’t in danger, yet. There’s no sense in blindly chasing after her Shadow and running into kami only knows what,” Tsuna said.

“I don’t think she was excited for nothing,” Teddie said. “The real Yukiko wants to show us something. I can feel it. It’s hard to explain… It seems like she has a strong connection to this castle. This is a lot more dangerous than I thought!”

The next floor up brought more from Princess Yukiko, though she was nowhere to be seen.

After another of those disturbing chuckles she said, “My Prince will soon come for me. I’ll always be waiting… Forever and ever…”

“How strange!” Teddie said. “I hear voices, but the only things I sense here are Shadows and you guys. Sensei and Shadows… Oooh, there we go!” Teddie paused to make a snuffly-snorty sound of amusement. “Hey, sensei! Listen to this. When you attack Shadows from behind, sensei will have a sensei-tional advantage! Sensei’s sensei-tional advantage!”

While Teddie was busy giggling himself silly over his sense of humor, they decided to start moving again.

“Maybe it’s just me,” Mukuro said, “but I’m getting the feeling that Amagi is unhappy with the whole of idea of inheriting the inn, and desperately wants someone to spirit her away. But a lot of kids aren’t especially thrilled when they realize their parents have expectations of them they may not want to adhere to.”

“Hey! Wait up!”

4F brought another round of commentary from a disembodied Yukiko.

“Welcome. Thank you for coming to the Amagi Inn today. Your room is right this way. If we can help you in any way, please let us know immediately.”

“…What’s this voice talking about?” Teddie said. “This place isn’t an inn. It’s totally a castle!”

Tsuna shook his head slightly and said, “Are you all good to keep going?”

“We’ve been shuffling in and out of combat enough that we’re all still fairly fresh,” Xeul said. “Right?”

Everyone nodded, so on they went. Most of the floors seemed to consist of endless hallways—Tsuna was reminded of Resident Evil for some reason, with its very skewed ratio of hallways to rooms—the odd chest, and a hunt for the staircase upward.

The next floor, however…

“Where is she?” Teddie growled, looking adorably ferocious.

The voice came back. “Hmmm. Ohoho!”

“I can sense her! She must be on this floor!”

“Wow! By any chance, are you … my Princes? I’m locked up here… Please save me! Hmhmhm… I’m sure my Princes can do it. I’m sure they’ll brave any danger to release me from this place. I’ll be waiting for you… Ohoho…”

“There’s something very strange about this floor,” Teddie warned them.

He was right. Moving over certain spots saw the group teleported, and basically prevented them from making any progress. It wasn’t until Chikusa remembered an old riddle and suggested that once they were teleported, they backtrack, that they started getting somewhere.

By the time they made it to a suspicious door Tsuna had maxed out the number of slots he had for Persona cards and still had at least two he could get, once he had room for them.

“I sense someone beyond this door,” Teddie said. “It’s that girl’s scent!”

Beyond the imposing door was Princess Yukiko, but she was not alone. Beside her was a massive, mounted knight-type, carrying a lance.

Shadow Yukiko chuckled on seeing them. “My Princes wouldn’t lose to guards such as this, correct?”

“Gyaaaaaah! I’ve never seen such a strong one before! I-It’s attacking us!” Teddie cried as he scrambled back a bit.

Mid-Boss was immune to physical strikes, which pissed Tsuna off something fierce, as he’d been having a lovely time punching the shit out of things as a method of stress relief. They had been saving their Spirit Points for battle healing, as much as possible, as while they were all skilled fighters, the restrictions on them made everything linked to their Personas to some degree, as best they could figure out. Mid-Boss came as something of an unwelcome surprise.

By the time the thing was dust Shadow Yukiko had vanished, but her voice rang out again. “If you really are my Princes, then surely we will meet again. I am but a trapped soul… I cannot leave this place even if I wished…”

“…I don’t sense her anymore,” Teddie reported.

“Okay, break time,” Tsuna announced. “Teddie, let us know if you sense any Shadows headed this way, please.”

“On it!”

“And now we find out…” He reached into his storage and removed the bentos. “That’s a relief.” He handed them out and sat down to have a meal.

“Now that’s interesting,” Sin said once they were done eating. “I feel fully healed and, uh…”

“HP and SP are full again,” he said, collecting the boxes and tossing them into storage. “I will definitely be bringing bentos along every time, then, and enough for several meals for each of us. Something tells me we’ll be rescuing more than just Amagi-san.”

“Any bets on it being Heul’s cooking specifically that manages this?” Daemon said, smirking. “I rather doubt pre-made stuff bought at the store would work so well.”

“We can always try it,” Hayato said, “but why would we ever turn down Heul’s cooking?”

“There is all this stuff we keep finding or getting as loot,” Tsuna said. “It doesn’t seem very effective, though. I wonder if Daidara’s could use some of the non-food stuff. Maybe melt things down or use parts for decoration or something. The worst that happens is he says no, and then we turn around and find our own uses for the stuff.”

“We ready?” Chikusa said.

“Let’s mosey.”

Tsuna noticed that the fog kept getting more and more red as they ascended the floors of the castle. It had started out nearly the normal white-grey, only barely stained with pink, but it was starting to look like someone had suspended blood in the air by the time they reached 7F.

“In other words, she’s a manager who’s still in high school,” came a voice he remembered, that one reporter. “Now that has a nice ring to it. Let’s see if we can interview her. Excuse me!”

“Shut up!”

“Someday, though… That aside, wow! You're looking gorgeous in that kimono. You must have a lot of male visitors.”

“Leave me alone! I'm sick of everything! I'm sick of it…”

Teddie huffed and said, “I don’t get what's going on with all those voices, but I can sense that we're getting closer. Hang in there!”

8F brought Shadow Yukiko’s voice again. “Hasn’t my Prince come yet? My dear Prince… Please hurry and take me away! Somewhere… To a world where no one knows me…”

“It’s like parts of the girl’s psyche were scattered all over this place,” Daemon said, “and the fog is a conductor.”

“How are we doing, guys? Do we retreat for the day and finish up tomorrow or…?”

“See if she’s even on this floor?” Hayato suggested. “If she isn’t, definitely take a break and stock up for another few floors. If she is, I’d say still retreat, just so we’re fresh for what I expect will be a classic boss battle.”

“And also get a chance to test out stuff we could actually eat in battle, as opposed to a full bento,” Chikusa said, “to see if those would at least partially replenish us. The weather is holding, so we should be all right to delay one day.”

Sin nodded. “Once we really get the hang of how all this works, we could easily clear a place like this in an afternoon, but this first one? Without knowing if things get even more weird the higher we go?”

“…All right,” he said. “Let’s determine whether she’s on this floor or not, then head out.”

She was, as it turned out. There was an absolutely massive set of doors on the floor, and Teddie got excited again. “It’s close! She’s just beyond here!”

“Right. Who has that escape skill again?” It had been a pleasant surprise when they realized that whatever floor they’d been on was the one they could teleport to from the entrance, so long as they used a skill to retreat. They had also stumbled over an item by the name of Goho-M that would do the same thing, but there was no point in using one if someone had enough SP left to use the skill.

Back at the studio they said good-bye to Teddie and exited through the TV stack.

“That is way more tiring than it ought to be,” Ken complained.

Tsuna sighed wearily and nodded. “Any thoughts on how we’ll handle things when we find and rescue the girl? Do we have anything that would leave traces in her system that would suggest she’s been kept unconscious during her time missing? Something like that? I can’t be seen with her. My uncle started prodding the other day, making it clear he expected me to stay away from trouble, so—” He stopped when half the room started snickering or otherwise expressing mirth.

Sin enfolded him in a hug from behind and kissed him on the cheek. “Like that’s ever gonna happen. We’ll talk it over tonight, okay? You need to get back to the Dojima house, unfortunately, make sure your cousin isn’t eating that trashy instant ramen or whatever.”

He nodded and turned his head so he could get a kiss, then headed out.

For dinner he made okonomiyaki and fell into bed a bit early, happy to get a little extra sleep.

####  19 April 2011, Tuesday

He was about to head downstairs to have breakfast when his phone rang. He couldn’t think of a single person who would be calling him so early, and when he picked up it was Margaret on the other end, which begged the question of how she got his number, and how that even worked that she could call him from the Velvet Room.

He absently listened as she rabbited on about bonds and Social Links and not doing things too hastily, and gladly tucked his phone away once he hit the bottom of the stairs, really not having appreciated being told (essentially) that they assumed he had the memory of a goldfish and really needed to be reminded of things so damn often.

On the way to school he overheard some girls talking about how applications would be accepted, starting that day, for sports clubs.

‘Yeah, so not happening,’ he thought.

It was mildly of interest that one of them mentioned a shrine near the shopping district that people rarely visited.

He was even less inclined to join a sports club when he learned that Morooka was the faculty overseer for them. School was the usual bore that only required about five percent of his attention, and they stepped over to the Rokudo house the second they were free for the day so that Tsuna could prepare for their next foray into the TV World by making plenty of food to take along, including muffins, because those were dead simple, delicious, and could probably be eaten mid-battle.

Back in the TV World, at the castle, they came to a stop at those massive doors on 8F and checked their gear and supplies, then entered.

The room was fairly large. At the far end was a set of steps leading up to a throne where Shadow Yukiko stood. In keeping with the rest of the décor there was a gold-edged red carpet runner cushioning those steps, and a hanging similar to the ones in the hallways was displayed behind the throne, though that one had a ruler-type symbol on it in gold.

At the base of the steps was the real Yukiko, still wearing that pink kimono, which meant she had been taken either while on another errand or from the inn directly, and he already knew she’d disappeared from the inn based on what his twins had uncovered.

“Oh? Oooooo, what’s this?” Shadow Yukiko said. “So many Princes here to see me!? My my! Are you the surprise guests who came in late? Awwwww… I wish I’d gotten a better look at you! My, it’s getting crowded in here. Why don’t you and I go somewhere else? A land far, far away, where no one knows me. If you’re my Prince, you’d take me there, won’t you? C’mon… Pretty please?”

Tsuna heaved a quiet sigh, just knowing he would end up with a Social Link to the girl, because she clearly had a lot of issues that needed working through.

“I’m surprised Chie isn’t with you. Yes, she’s my Prince… She always leads the way… Chie’s a strong Prince… Or at least, she _was_. When it comes down to it, Chie’s just not good enough! She can’t take me away from here! She can’t save me!”

“S-stop,” the real Yukiko said ineffectually.

“Historic inn? Manager training!? I’m sick of all these things chaining me down! I never asked to be born here! Everything’s decided _for_ me! From how I live, to where I die! I’m so sick of it! To hell with it all!”

“That’s not true…”

“I would complain about the girl not acting on her desire to take charge of her own life,” he said to Sin in a quiet aside, “and try to find a way out of this place, but if this is reality to those who get tossed in here…”

“I just want to go somewhere far away, anywhere but here. Someone, please take me away. I can’t leave here on my own. I’m completely useless.”

“That begs the question of why we weren’t affected the same way,” Sin replied just as quietly. “But I could easily see why not, based on the evidence.”

“Stop… Please stop…”

“I have no hope if I stay, and no courage to leave, so I sit on my ass hoping that someday my Prince will come! I don’t care where we go! Anywhere’s fine! As long as it’s not here, I don’t give a damn! Historical tradition? Pride of the town? What a bunch of bullshit!”

“How dare you…?” Yukiko couldn’t seem to even raise her head to look at her Shadow Self, she was that much in denial of her feelings.

“That’s how I really feel. Isn’t that right … me!?”

“N-no… No! You’re not me!”

And then shit got weird.

Shadow Yukiko started cackling and raving and laughing like a pre-sanity Daemon, then transformed into what could only be an exercise in symbolism: a caged bird.

Yukiko let out a pained cry and slumped again.

“I am the Shadow, the True Self. Now, my Prince… Why don’t we dance and make merry together?”

“Backup, get her out of the line of fire, then be ready to swap in as necessary,” Tsuna said, making sure his spiked gloves were set before moving up to face the threat.

The first round of battle was an exploration of sorts, and Shadow Yukiko proved to not be weak to anything they threw at her. Second round had her summoning a Charming Prince to fight at her side, and the odd little fellow promptly healed some of the damage she had taken.

“Right, that’s bad,” he muttered, then obeyed his intuition when it nudged him and swapped to a Persona with Ice skills so he could nail it with Bufu, which it turned out to be weak to. Thankfully, the Forneus Persona was not weak to fire, which seemed to be Shadow Yukiko’s element.

“I’ll stand watch on the girl,” Chikusa said from the back. “No point in me being front line and having to guard the entire time.”

Charming Prince was taken out in short order to minimize the chance of healing, and when Shadow Yukiko attempted to re-summon him, she failed and wasted another turn lamenting that fact, which simply gave them more time to take chunks out of her health.

The battle after that was a rhythm of saving SP for healing skills (because why waste them on elemental skills that did not do much more damage than simply attacking Shadow Yukiko), healing when necessary (or popping a muffin, which seemed to do the trick, even if not completely), and otherwise attacking her relentlessly.

Shadow Yukiko reverted to her human form once defeated and just stared at the real one, waiting, probably for another opportunity to transform and attempt to kill them all.

“Our goal here is to get her out of this place,” he said, eyeing the Shadow. “So let’s all link up and use that skill to retreat. It’s entirely possible that the Shadow can’t leave this castle.”

Xeul promptly sent the girl to sleep and hauled her up over his shoulder in a fireman carry, then waited for everyone to grab hold. Once Traesto took effect they hauled ass back to the studio and were gratified that Shadow Yukiko either could not follow, or could not follow fast enough.

A quick trip through the exit and they were home.

Tsuna blinked when Fool Arcana Social Link Rank 2!! flashed by, then shook his head and said, “So…”

“I say we leave her at that shrine, toss up a weak Bounding Box so that she’s not harassed by anyone with dishonorable intent, and call in an anonymous tip to the police,” Daemon said.

“After making sure this is all a bad dream to her,” Ken said.

“That’s a given,” Mukuro replied. “Our faces and that whole fight should be removed entirely or blurred beyond recognition.”

“Her memory of being thrown in is already so blurred that I can’t make sense of it,” Xeul reported, frowning in frustration. “I think there’s something in that fog, plus the mental shock of being there in the first place. People like us, augmented and incredibly strong mentally, aren’t affected the same way, presumably.”

Tsuna broke out the bentos and set them on the table, then settled into have a snack to tide him over until dinner. After taking the edge off he said, “Sounds like a plan. I lean toward blurring the fuck out of what memories she does have, to make it seem like a nightmare she was having while she was out. She doesn’t know who took her, why, or to where. It’s not outside reason that her subconscious would produce something outrageous as a way of expressing her fear and sense of helplessness. So long as the police don’t decide she’s mental and ship her off to a facility, it should be good.”

Mukuro snorted. “If they start that line of thinking, we can always subtly correct them.”

“We’ll keep a window on her, and on the police,” Xeul said. “Do you want to do the Bounding Box yourself, or…?”

Tsuna shook his head. “I know you guys are good for it, and it’s only temporary. I suppose one of you could be standing by invisibly until the police arrive to collect her. Maybe… Maybe keep her unconscious so they’re forced to deliver her to the hospital, to delay things a bit more. Ugh, the food has helped, but I’m still feeling a bit dragged out.”

“I’ll walk you back,” Sin said.


	5. λ21: 05: 20 April - 03 May 2011

## λ21  
05: 20 April - 03 May 2011

####  20 April 2011, Wednesday

Tsuna hung out with Yosuke after school, mostly because the guy still wanted to buy him a meal as thanks, not that Tsuna could remember what it was in thanks for. He went along with it and they ended up at Souzai Daigaku in the shopping district, where he was treated to the “famous” steak croquettes.

The place was more of a stand than a proper eatery and he had to wonder where they were storing their stock. Drinks were not on the menu, though there was a vending machine right next to the place to compensate. Not the kind of place to eat at on rainy days, as the table did not have an umbrella. Of mild interest was the fact that their seats were upended plastic crates.

“Sticking chunks of steak in croquettes… Man, this really is the country, huh?” Yosuke said. “Well, it is good, though it’s tough. Chie called this stuff ‘tender and juicy’. What kinda teeth does she have?”

To ladies walked by, housewives by the look of it, and both of them glanced back. “He’s from Junes… Yasogami High School, right?” said the first.

Yosuke took a quick look over his shoulder.

“His classmate… Sato-san…? Went out of business.” She shook her head.

“This shopping district could disappear, and yet…”

“Sorry about that,” Yosuke said. “You know me, I’m infamous around here.”

‘As the son of the Junes manager, one assumes,’ he thought. “…It must be tough.” He could compare it to his original situation, except that Yosuke wasn’t being openly bullied and even used as a punching bag by his fellow students, which was a plus.

“Nah, it’s not really. It’s mainly my parents; I’m not personally involved. Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Yosuke said with a shrug. “I don’t think there’s anyone in Inaba who doesn’t know me, at school or around town… Not that I mind, but… It sucks that I always gotta mind my manners.” He smiled cheerfully, as if none of it really did bother him.

Tsuna blinked when Magician Arcana Social Link Rank 2!! flashed by, but nodded and continued to eat the sub-par food.

“Still, this croquette is damn good, huh? I’m gonna have another. You want one, too, right?”

He did not, but for the sake of politeness, he smiled and tilted his head. When they parted he headed for the Rokudo house and was again surprised, but only because his twins were both sporting unhappy looks. “What’s up?”

“Massimo bought the farm.”

“What!? What the hell? Do they know who did it?”

“No, but that doesn’t especially surprise us. Since the girl is safe we can afford to focus our attention on poking around on that issue. Maybe we can find something, maybe not. Federico was and remains the favorite, so maybe Teo-jiji will buy a clue and up the security.”

“Huh. Well, anything you can find out is good, but if not, there are kids waiting in the wings, even if they are the Tsow’s, since they’re the eldest. And speaking of him, when was the last time you looked in on him?”

“Several months ago, but there was nothing new at the time, or anything that made us want to look closer or more deeply. We’ll have another poke ’round.”

He nodded and checked the clock. There was enough time if he wanted to make a few treats for his family, which he did, so he got started. Sin materialized by his side to help out.

####  21 April 2011, Thursday

They were walking away from the school when they stopped dead on hearing a very loud, very surprised, “Kora!?” Tsuna turned in the direction of the sound to see Colonnello standing there, gawking for all he was worth at Sin and, having learned to lipread along the way, Tsuna was able to catch him saying, “When the hell did Reborn have a kid, kora?”

Colonnello marched over, looking very much out of place, and nearly demanded to know, “What are some interesting places to see around here?”

“…Aside from a few shrines and the Amagi Inn, not much, I’m afraid,” he replied. “Most people go to Okina City for a bit more in the way of entertainment. Inaba is quite small.”

“Amagi Inn?” Colonnello said. Though he was looking at Tsuna, he appeared to be keeping an eye on Sin in his peripheral vision. “I have been looking for a nice, quiet place to get away to,” he said unconvincingly.

Sin turned away and started a filler conversation with Mukuro and Hayato, a subtle way of making it known that Tsuna was the leader of the group.

A serene smile slid into place (which caused Colonnello to twitch minutely) before Tsuna gave the erstwhile Arcobaleno clear directions on how to get to the Amagi Inn.

“Live here all your life, have you?” Colonnello asked.

Tsuna shook his head. “Only moved here recently, but I came from a town not much bigger than this, so it hasn’t been a dire change.”

“Well, I’ve never spent much time in a place like this, so I’m going to check it out, see what life in a small town is like, kora!” Colonnello declared. That apparently counted as some sort of resolve as—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Strength Arcana.

—flashed by, causing Tsuna to sigh quietly.

Once he was gone they quickly shuffled off to the Rokudo house, whereupon Mukuro said, “Tagged him. It is incredibly strange that we’d run into one of them, here of all places.”

“What’s this?” Xeul asked, his twin coming over to stand at his shoulder.

After a quick explanation (and that Colonnello apparently counted as the Strength Arcana Social Link), a window was opened to the Amagi Inn, where Colonnello had actually gone. They watched as the man made arrangements for a stay (though it was not to start immediately, as they were booked up due to all the drama going on), then hastened off to go find a place to crash for the night, which turned out to be one of the abandoned shop-fronts in the shopping district.

“I can see we’ll be staying up late tonight,” Daemon said. “I am most curious as to why he’s in town.”

“Maybe they sent him to see if the deaths were caused by an emergent flame?” Hayato suggested.

Daemon nodded. “Could be, though he’d be an odd choice for that.”

“Maybe he was bored?” Ken said.

Later that evening, when Tsuna was in his room, a window opened up, so he quickly flipped his laptop open so it could masquerade as a chat/call application.

“That’s exactly why he was here,” Daemon reported. “He was with Lal at the time when it came up, and volunteered to come check. Now he’s convinced that the local Reborn somehow managed to get someone knocked up—he hasn’t quite figured out the logistics of that improbability—and Sin is the result.”

“Kami-sama,” he breathed. “So now we can expect to be inundated by curious Arcobaleno?”

“More than likely.”

Sin could be seen smirking in the background, probably reveling in the potential for chaos to come their way.

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Great Shuffler had something to do with this,” he said, “but there’s not much we can do about it except sit back and see how it unfolds.”

“Considering you said Colonnello counts as the Strength Arcana,” Chikusa said, “I must wonder if the others will count for additional Social Links.”

Tsuna groaned softly. True, he had at one time the vague notion of getting closer to most of them, possibly all, but that had been decades ago! Maybe he could figure out a way to troll them the entire time? Or some of it? “Aw, fuck,” he said.

“What’s wrong?”

Tsuna’s brow went up in disbelief. “What’s wrong? I look like a fucking Giotto clone!”

“Oh… Right, that’s bad,” Daemon said lamely.

“You know… There are days when I think we should appropriate some blood from Nana and do a heritage test with it,” he said. “I look so much like my mother, and yet also a clone of Giotto? Seriously, how does that even work? I can’t help but think Nana is also a descendant of Giotto, and just that nobody ever made the connection before.”

Xeul poked in from the side and nodded. “I can always track her down at her new place and get some, make the potion. Once she’s done with her honeymoon, that is.”

“We could meddle slightly,” Mukuro said from “off camera”. “Make them think it’s a strong resemblance, but not a veritable clone? I’m not especially thrilled with the idea of doing it, though. I mean…”

“We have a special relationship with them, sort of,” he said.

“Yeah. I feel a bit strange about the idea. On the other hand, there’s no way in hell they’re going to get blood or saliva from you to run DNA tests against Teo-jiji, Federico, and the Tsow.”

“There is that one saying, that everyone has a twin somewhere, but something tells me that won’t fly with this lot,” he said. “We’ll just have to take it as it comes and practice the Three Ds. Or something. I simply can’t imagine Reborn finding out from his frenemy that there’s a kid who looks so much like him and not hauling ass this way to investigate.”

Sin snorted. “You’re damn right I would. No one should look this good except me.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “Okay, uh, recap. Prepare for incoming Arcobaleno. Get blood from Nana for a heritage test. Get updates on the idiots in Italy. Figure out what the fuck is going on in this town. Am I forgetting anything?”

“See if we can get any clues as to who offed Massimo,” Chikusa added.

“Right, that. Okay, I’m … going to bed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

####  22 April 2011, Friday

Nothing much happened the next day, which was a relief. Colonnello was _not_ spotted skulking around town spying on him, which was nice. It did make Tsuna far more interested in working out a rune scheme to protect the houses with. He just needed to appropriate some ward stones from λ15, the Potter world, or pester Bael to go pick some up for him, and pay him back with extra food for his trouble.

His family (minus the twins) set to working that out during the afternoon, and Tsuna headed back to the Dojima house so he could get dinner ready. He was getting close to finishing up when his uncle arrived, and he had his kohai in tow—or at least he thought that’s who the man was.

Nanako smiled happily when she saw her father, but went all shy when she noticed the stranger. “Um… Hello…”

“Hi there.”

“We got off work at the same time, so I’m giving him a ride back to his place. And I thought we might as well swing by,” Dojima said.

“Nice to meet ya. I’m Adachi, the guy who’s been your dad’s slave since spring.”

‘What an odd greeting,’ he thought.

“I can still work you harder, you know,” Dojima retorted, and Tsuna was hard pressed to tell if the man was joking or not.

Adachi laughed. “Good one, senpai!” 

Dojima disappeared into his bedroom for whatever reason, and Adachi laughed again, though it sounded sour. “Oh, I almost forgot! You know Amagi Yukiko, right?”

“She’s in my class, so yes,” he said.

“They found her safe and sound! Tell all your friends at school!”

“Wait, what? She was missing?” he said, brows drawn together in concern. “I thought she was still having to fill in at the inn. I know they’ve been a bit swamped.”

“Oh, uh… But this doesn’t mean the case is closed, though,” Adachi said. “We were just questioning Amagi-san, but she says she doesn’t remember anything that happened while she was missing. And we can’t figure out her whereabouts during the missing period, either. It’s like she really disappeared. It’s all pretty fishy if you ask me… Like there’s something else going on…”

Dojima came up behind him and smacked him. “Stop blabbering, dumbass!”

“S-sorry…”

“Ignore him,” Dojima said. “He’s just spouting some wild fantasy. He can be a real pain sometimes.”

Nanako must have decided the adults were being boring. “I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, it is that time. My stomach’s growling, too.”

Adachi laughed again. “So you do have a softer side around Nanako-chan, senpai.”

“Shut up and siddown. But wash those hands first! Hm, I should do the same.”

Tsuna pushed back his annoyance at having to stretch a meal for three into four and started plating the food. Due to his irritation he ended up propagating part of Adachi’s meal, rather than overtly shorting portions for his actual family.

####  23 April 2011, Saturday

As they walked through the school gates he overheard two girls talking.

“I heard they’ve put up ads for part-time jobs on the town bulletin board! I wonder if there’s anything there I can make some easy cash with.”

The second girl hummed. “I don’t think you have the diligence to handle a job that takes a lot of time.”

“That’s so mean! Maybe I don’t… But, I bet I’ll be more diligent if I get a job! I bet you wouldn’t do too well with a job where you have to work with others because you lack understanding, huh?”

‘Cattiness for the win, I suppose.’

When the final bell rang Chie popped up from her desk and came around to his. “Um…”

His brow went up.

“…Would you mind hanging out with me for a while today? I mean, you mentioned that great store and…”

‘So she wants to go, but not alone?’ he wondered. “We can go if you want, sure.”

“Great! Let me just get my things.” Chie dashed back to her desk.

Tsuna turned to Sin and said, “I’ll see you guys in an hour or so.”

Sin made a slight face, but nodded. “I’ll let the others know.”

Tsuna smiled fondly, then grabbed his things and got up. He spent most of the time at Daidara’s watching Chie drool over the goods on display and listening to her rabbit on about all of it, as well as her personal training, which somehow resulted in another rank for the Chariot Social Link.

‘Eh, it’s probably related to her resolve to work harder at training so she can become a better martial artist.’

“Do you know much about fighting?” Chie asked as they were exiting the shop.

“Some, yes. Why?”

“Would you mind helping me out from time to time? There’s only so much you can do alone.”

“Sure, I can find some time every so often.”

“Great!” Chie smiled happily, then waved and headed off.

“That girl can be exhausting in her enthusiasm,” he said to his family after arriving at the Rokudo house. “But, that counted as progress. I keep forgetting to go back into the Velvet Room and fuck around with fusions.”

“It may not matter much,” Ken said. “If you were going to use the Persona anyway, the bonus experience might not matter too much, and if it’s one that isn’t too great, it definitely won’t.”

“True,” Hayato said. “However, consider that Heul can only carry so many at a time, and that Margaret chick said something about a compendium. Maybe she can store the extras or something?”

“You know what? I’m going to go check. Now is as good a time as any, and I have time before I need to go make dinner.” He turned around and left again, back to the shopping district.

His foray into the Velvet Room proved the theory, sort of. Margaret could “register” Personas for him, which meant he could fuse what he had or drop one of them, and still get them back as they were—for a fee.

He spent some time fucking around with the fusion system to get a feel for it, which resulted in some better alternatives—and also learned that fusion results were automatically added to the compendium if the resulting Persona was one he had not already registered, though they could be overwritten just like any other Persona—then headed to the Dojima house to make sure Nanako had something decent to eat.

####  24 April 2011, Sunday

He ran into Yosuke while doing the weekly shopping with Nanako, and agreed to hang out after the groceries were put away. Yosuke wanted to check out the shops in Okina City.

“Mmmm… It’s been a while since I breathed this kinda air! Y’know, I’m just a poor little city boy drawn to that urban scent. What should we—oh, a text message.” Yosuke checked his phone and grimaced faintly. “More spam. Looks like someone got my address. I get a lot of spam.”

“You don’t … block them?”

“Even when I do, they change domains, so there’s no point. And I don’t wanna change my address,” Yosuke replied, sighing. “I haven’t changed my address since before we moved to Inaba. I mean, I might get a text from someone. It’s hard to call, y’know? If I called people just to tell them my number changed, they’d get annoyed.

“And some of them might not wanna text me at all… Oh, but hey, don’t look at me like I don’t have any friends! …Though to tell you the truth, I don’t remember what we all used to talk about. Can’t really call ’em friends… Inaba suits me just fine.”

‘Sure it does. Because that wasn’t the worst damn lie or anything,’ he thought. “I was only here the one time, to change trains. Why don’t we look around, check things out.”

“Sure!” Yosuke said cheerfully, then pointed at the nearest place.

‘Seems to me the poor kid still feels like an outsider here, though it’s not a surprise considering the whole Junes thing and how he’s easy to blame. Adults don’t like pointing fingers at other adults if they can gossip spitefully around a kid instead. Kids are supposed to do what they’re told and then transition into adults who tell their kids to do as they’re told according to whatever grand plan their parents have for them.’ He paused mentally, then sighed. ‘Sure, sure, not holding any grudges here, clearly. It does make it easier to relate to the kid, though.’

And just like that, the Magician Social Link ranked up to three.

They spent an hour shopping and buying the odd souvenir, then took the train back to Inaba and parted ways.

####  25 April 2011, Monday

Those same girls were chattering away as Tsuna walked to school with his friends, this time about how the cultural clubs would be accepting new members starting today. As before, he promptly ignored the idea. He was already stuck dealing with a bunch of teenagers all day. The last thing he wanted was to join a club and spend even more time with them.

Sadly, Colonnello popped up again not far from the school as they were leaving after classes. He had a steely glint to his eyes, so he was going to be stubborn. “About that shrine, kora!”

A serene smile slid into place—he greatly enjoyed the twitch it provoked from Colonnello—and he looked off to the east. “It’s a bit out of the way, but I suppose we could show you.” Any sane person with no knowledge whatsoever of this strange non-Japanese man would likely think he was a crazy creeper or potential serial killer. He wondered if, should Dojima hear about his nephew showing a strange man around town, he would get a lecture on his behavior.

He helpfully pointed out local curiosities on the way (what little he knew) and generally continued to talk about nothing much of anything (a skill anyone who had to deal with politics learned). The shrine itself was a sad thing, and in woeful disrepair. In retrospect, he felt mildly annoyed at himself for agreeing to leave Amagi here for the police to find. A mental note was made to choose a new location should it (inevitably) happen again, or get the place cleaned up.

“It’s the first time I’ve been here,” he said, as if confiding something. “It could do with some love.”

Colonnello looked a bit glassy-eyed after all the inane babble, but nodded. “Yeah, yeah…”

“How are you finding the Amagi Inn?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s great, kora! A lot of history there, and you can tell the people who work there love the place.”

“It seems to be something of a landmark here,” he commented. “I’ve never been to it, but then, why would I?”

“There’s a girl there, about your age, a pretty little thing. She go to school with you?”

Tsuna did a slow blink at the line of questioning and wondered exactly where it was headed. “Amagi-san is in my class, but I’ve only spoken to her once or twice.”

Colonnello nodded and immediately honed in on Sin. “What about you? She looked like the type you’d go for.”

Tsuna did another slow blink, that time wondering if Colonnello was ascribing the same personality to this Reborn clone as the one he’d known for years.

Sin’s expression blanked out before he turned away to, ostensibly, investigate the shrine more closely.

Tsuna coughed delicately and adopted a disapproving look.

Colonnello suddenly remembered something he meant to do and rushed off, leaving them all a bit confused.

“I’m not sure I want to discuss how blatantly obvious that approach was,” Hayato said.

Sin snorted. “It’s not like he was ever known for his subtlety. Shall we?”

Tsuna took another look around the shrine area, then nodded.

“Your sperm donor is at fault,” Daemon said after he walked in the door, which caused Tsuna to stop dead in his tracks and try to figure out what that statement linked back to.

“Uh…”

“Massimo’s death. And Enrico’s.”

“What the everloving fuck?”

Daemon grimaced. “Seems _this one_ is jealous. He got the full hype as a youngster about CEDEF and bought the goods, then came around to thinking that he was scammed out of being in line for the ‘throne’. Thinks his children should be the ones to inherit, not Teo-jiji’s spawn. For Enrico he used—or rather, misused—information coming in via CEDEF to ensure Enrico was in a no-win situation. Massimo was done in the whole ‘sleeping with the fishes’ way as an insult.”

“So, what… He’s going to target Federico, and then target all the kids, too, just so one of his brats is shunted into being Decimo? And possibly finish off Teo-jiji just to be absolutely certain none of Ricardo’s line is left to cause a fuss? And what about Xanxus?”

Daemon shrugged. “Xanxus stopped giving a fuck after he was set free, but I can re-check his state of mind.”

“Maybe we should compile the evidence and dump it all in Xanxus’s lap, see what he does,” Ken said. “If he’s loyal to Vongola, rather than the current head, he might take care of this little issue, and that way it stays in house.”

“Well there’s no point in giving it to Teo-jiji,” Chikusa added. “He’s proven time and time again he has a serious set of blinders on when it comes to certain family members. Considering that the Tsow is one of his pets, odds are he’d just ignore whatever evidence we sent his way.”

“What about just taking out the Tsow and then dropping that evidence on all of them?” Sin asked. “At least that way they’d know why he was killed. Though it might reflect badly on his children as guilt by association, especially if they were raised with certain ideas in mind.”

Tsuna wandered over to the kitchen and started a batch of muffins as a way to think. A part of him just wanted to cut to the chase and off the obvious defect, but another part stubbornly wanted to make Teo-jiji see reality for once. While it was good there was still hope in his unending life—or lives—he was not so delusional as to think a single dimension would set the tone going forward, or that the weight of experience would so suddenly shift the direction of that yet to be experienced.

The core of the matter was that the Tsow was offing members of his family to advance his children. That all the adults were idiots was beside the point. He slid a pan of muffins into the stove to bake and turned around. “Off the defect. Quiet, traceless, no fuss. I would say pull back all eyes on the family, but considering that Colonnello has barged into our lives, I don’t think we can afford to, so that continues.”

His family all nodded and went into a huddle to determine a course of action and who got to be the lucky bastard to do the deed.

“I set an alarm for these,” he said, “but I need to go in order to get dinner ready. Enjoy, darlings.”

####  26 April 2011, Tuesday

Colonnello was back the next afternoon and, while he talked primarily to Tsuna, kept Sin in his peripheral vision the whole time. Tsuna got the distinct feeling that any Social Link with this guy would be slow going, assuming it even ranked again.

“I do apologize,” he said, a serene smile sliding into place, “but I am unsure exactly what it is you seek.”

Colonnello’s eye twitched. “Stuff in small towns is so interesting,” he said lamely.

“That is a pleasant way to think,” he said smoothly. “We must be going now.” He intensified his smile just to see if he could get another twitch out of the man, bowed politely, and walked away. He beelined for a safe spot so they could step over to the Rokudo house.

He eyed Sin and laughed. “Schatz, he is just so clueless at times.”

Sin shrugged. “We were never exactly friends, so I never have been sure about what’s going on in his head. More like mostly respected comrades.”

“We’ll be keeping an eye out for more of them coming to investigate,” Xeul said. “It won’t be long before he’s unable to cope with not spilling this secret. And if he tells Lal, odds are she’ll tell Reborn—or come here personally so she can scope out the situation and then hand him the evidence.”

“Well, Colonnello doesn’t always think ahead,” Sin said, “so it’s likely he won’t think to get pictures or video from a distance.”

“Speaking of video,” he said, “did anyone remember about the TV I wanted?”

Daemon’s expression went guilty, as did Xeul’s.

“I’m gonna take that as a no,” he said dryly. “Right, I’m off to Junes. Whoever wants to tag along…”

A new flat-screen was purchased and delivery arranged for—once he tracked down a clerk—and they left again. Tsuna could expect his new television that night, which he sincerely hoped would not end up delivered mid-cooking or mid-dinner. With that in mind he parted from his family and headed to the Dojima house.

“How’s school going?” he asked Nanako, who was laboriously filling out a worksheet on stroke order.

“Um… It’s fine,” she said distractedly.

He left her to it and glanced at the meals schedule they had worked out, then headed upstairs to play a game until it was time to start. He barely had the game open when he heard the doorbell go. Hoping it was the new TV he headed back downstairs in time to see Nanako opening the door, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.

Nanako went back to her worksheet as he hefted the box upstairs with the help of the delivery guy, then escorted him back out to make sure he did leave. He would prefer for one of his family to help him get the thing mounted, so he ignored it after that and went back to his game.

####  27 April 2011, Wednesday

“Maybe we should start going in when we’re not doing anything else,” Chikusa suggested. “These Personas level up just like we do. If we’re not actively working on this, at what point do we run into things we can’t handle?”

It was an interesting question to be hit with on walking in the door, he thought. A glance at the others saw agreeable expressions, so he put his umbrella in the stand, nodded, and diverted to the kitchen so he could make up food to take with them. Sin jumped in to help, and shortly thereafter they were inside the TV.

Teddie was surprised to see them given the flailing of his little arms and how big his eyes got.

Tsuna took a moment to set off the stopwatch feature of his phone before greeting the bear.

“Why’re you all here?”

“Practice,” he said. “Thought we’d visit the castle again—if it’s still there—and work on getting stronger.”

“Oh!” Another round of arm flailing ensued. “That place is still there,” Teddie said once he settled down.

“Then let’s go.”

Teddie skittered off to lead the way and they were shortly back at Yukiko’s Castle.

“I honestly wonder why this is still here if she’s not,” he said. “Does someone’s psyche really make that lasting of an impression on this world?”

“Maybe they fade in time?” Ken said. “Like, get smaller, and eventually disappear?”

“If this world is some version of the collective unconscious,” Hayato said, “then maybe it’ll stay until it fades from their memory? I mean, sure, we meddled with her memories, but sometimes nightmares can take forever to get shunted into storage, so to speak.”

He hummed and nodded, then shrugged. “Okay, let’s get some training done.”

Inside the grand entrance Teddie flailed his arms again. “Senpai! Wait! I sense a powerful shadow at the place you found that girl. I just want to live here in peace. Could you defeat it?”

“If we’re strong enough. We may need to get in more practice first. For now, let’s just clear out what we can, and see when the time comes.”

“Okay,” Teddie said a little sadly.

The castle wasn’t any harder than before, and they hit 8F in what felt like a reasonable amount of time. Daemon looked over and said, “Your … impressions?”

Tsuna bit his lip and waited for his intuition to render judgment. He shook his head after a moment. “It’s too strong right now. I think we need to run the castle a few more times, and I need to make sure I have some Personas that will resist physical attacks, probably something with ice attacks.”

“So there’s no point in using Traesto,” Hayato said. “We can just work our way back down, assuming everyone feels good for it.”

Tsuna checked his phone’s stopwatch. It said they’d been in there for around two hours, which meant if it was accurate he should be leaving so he could see to Nanako’s dinner. He shook his head again. “This time, Traesto. We need to see how our perception of time is warped. If we do have time we can come right back in for another round, but otherwise…”

Nods went around, so they use the skill to return to the entrance and made their way back to the studio. “Unless something comes up, we’ll be here tomorrow,” he informed Teddie, who looked a bit happier at the news.

Tsuna hit the stop button on his phone as he stepped through the TV stack and checked the time once he got back up from landing. It was 4.30, which more or less aligned with what his phone claimed.

On seeing that Xeul said, “I’m thinking we should definitely plan to go in each afternoon, when possible. Perhaps on Sunday we could do a second test, after you get done with shopping, and you’ve let Nanako know you’ll be out most of the day.”

“What, like spend a few hours in there, come out for lunch, then go back in, keeping track of all these numbers every time?” Ken asked.

Xeul nodded. “This time it worked out, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. Maybe the timing will be off depending on the weather, or the closer it gets to a rainy period that will likely result in fog on our side. We weren’t paying attention the first few times, but we can now.”

“Excellent points,” he said. “And on that note, I really do need to go. Maybe once I’m upstairs after dinner we can discuss it more.”

He did not manage to get out the door without being smothered briefly by Daemon, or without an escort by Sin, but he knew it had to be wearing on everyone to be separated so often. It certainly was on him. He still felt awkward to a degree, being in the Dojima house. He had little interest in getting to know his uncle better, though Nanako, an innocent child, truly deserved more.

“You set up the TV yet?” Sin asked as they walked.

“Ah, no. I want help with that, and getting it mounted. It can wait until we’ve gotten a few other things handled.”

“Or you could set up a temporary measure to avert curiosity and a couple of us step over.”

Tsuna nearly smacked himself for being obtuse. “Yeah, or that. Duh.”

“There’s a reason we’re here,” Sin sing-songed. “You can’t think of everything, tesoro, and you shouldn’t have to.”

He bumped shoulders with his lover as a reply, then waved a good-bye and headed in. Nanako had already started for the kitchen side of the room, so he was just in time. After a quiet dinner (interrupted once or twice by Nanako singing along with a Junes commercial) he did the washing up with his cousin and headed to his room.

A Bounding Box was placed before he opened a window.

Sin’s head snapped up almost before it was fully manifested and grinned, then stepped over to join him. Ken followed a few seconds later, holding a tool bag. Tsuna let the window close and grabbed a utility knife to start slicing through the packing tape on the box.

Ken got busy with a level and a carpenter’s pencil, to establish a baseline, then started marking where to drill once they handed him the wall mount.

“We still need to get a whiteboard or something to swing into place for this thing,” Sin pointed out. “Maybe tomorrow, after we’re done training, we could turn back and get something? Still not keen on the idea of going in on turned time.”

“Works for me. Or I dedicate the turned time to a baking spree while the twins go track one down.”

“An even better idea,” Ken said as he watched the two heft the screen into place, then began to check its seating. “And a console, of course, but we already have spares of those.”

They had a few Playstation 3s and 4s in storage (though the latter wasn’t scheduled to be released for a few years yet), handhelds, and so forth, along with a vast selection of games. Some games just played better on a console.

“Before you plug it in to test it…” Sin reached out and touched the screen; his fingers sank in. “Right. That’s not unexpected, but definitely not good.”

“I will be careful,” he promised as he hauled a PS3 out of storage. “We’ll get the whiteboard tomorrow, unless someone wants to go tonight.” He was only mildly surprised when the twins stepped into the room.

Daemon hauled a whiteboard out of his storage as Xeul pulled out the mounting for it. “We still expect an afternoon of baking,” Daemon said absently as he helped his twin.

“Deal.”

Sin lingered after the others left, drawing him down onto the futon to rest beside him and stare at a very unexciting ceiling. “We should take an afternoon off at some point, have a picnic. Something like that.”

He hummed. “Just the two of us, I presume. Maybe the Mountain of Death? It’s a beautiful place.”

“I think that’d be perfect,” Sin said, briefly turning his head to kiss his cheek. He sighed at the sound of the front door being opened. “Time to go. I’ll see you tomorrow, tesoro.”

He rolled onto his side to get a real kiss, let his lover go, and flopped onto his back again with a wistful smile. Tsuna dearly hoped that the next round did not see him separated from his family. He couldn’t take care of them! Kami knew they didn’t need it, but it was sort of his thing.

He glanced over at the newly-installed whiteboard and wondered what he should put on it, then diverted his attention when a window opened so he and his family could continue their earlier discussion.

####  28 April 2011, Thursday

It was still raining when he left for school, which meant it was likely the fog would set in soon. Chie joined them on the walk to school at the Flood Plain, looking inordinately cheerful. “Morning! Hey, hey! Yukiko told me she’d be able to come to school again in two days! I’m so happy!”

“That is excellent news,” he said serenely. “It must be so difficult to balance school and the family concern during those times they need the extra hands.”

Chie looked confused until it must have hit her that Tsuna wouldn’t necessarily know the details of the girl’s absence, despite his uncle being a detective. And that assumed she even remembered that detail.

Tsuna wasn’t certain what story was being circulated to account for the girl’s absence from school and didn’t much care, but it had to be something that her friend would accept without too much fuss. For all he knew they _had_ said she’d been kidnapped, but the thought of Amagi-san’s family giving that much information to Chie…

He shrugged lightly and adjusted his umbrella.

“I imagine it’ll be nice to have your best friend back in class with you,” Hayato said.

“Oh, yeah!” she said enthusiastically, a grin blossoming.

School was the usual boring wasteland and he was glad to be able to leave. They stepped over to the Rokudo house the moment they could and Tsuna set about putting together supplies for their trip into the TV.

“Depending on how things go over the next month, maybe, I’d say we can probably start sending in clones,” he said. “If we keep an eye on the TV at the right times it should be enough, I’d think.”

“Well,” Mukuro said slowly, “I think we’d need to be ourselves for any activities we’d be expected to participate in. I know this place has class trips from overhearing other students gossip, mostly them wondering what it’ll be this year.”

Tsuna grimaced and nodded. He could roll his eyes so hard he’d give himself a headache, or he could suck it up and accept the inevitable.

They swept the castle again, clearing out every floor, and at the door he leaned on his intuition again before pronouncing, “We could make it work, but it’d be iffy.”

Samsara shook their collective heads, not willing to risk it, and gathered together so they could exit. The stopwatch time was noted down as well as their start and end times. With so little data to go on it did not amount to much, but it was a start.

####  29 April 2011, Friday

Tsuna squinted up at the sky and sighed, then got his umbrella in place. The dreariness of the rain permeated the whole day at school. Students were listless and uncooperative and a whole lot of nothing was accomplished.

The castle round brought the news that he thought they were ready, with the bonus of knowing they were getting faster every time at clearing the place. They should have enough time to get back to Floor 8 where the boss-type Shadow was and still get back in time for Tsuna not to be late to make dinner.

Dojima showed up for once, just as he was plating their meal, so he quickly grabbed a third set of dinnerware to accommodate the man.

“Due to the weekend rainfall, clear skies seem unlikely in the area,” the weather girl helpfully informed them. “A thick fog is expected to set in tonight and remain until tomorrow morning, with heaviest concentration in the Inaba area. Anyone planning to go out tonight should take care. Now for our hourly weather breakdown…”

“More fog, huh?” Dojima said between bites. “There’s been a lot of that lately. Hopefully it’s not a sign of more trouble.” He had his hashi almost to his mouth when Nanako reached for the remote. “Ah-ah-ah. What did I say about changing the channel without asking?”

Nanako pouted, but quickly perked up when a Junes commercial came on.

“Have a great day even during Golden Week at your local Junes! Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day’s great at your Junes!”

“♫ Every day’s great at your Junes! ♫” Nanako sang happily. “Dad! They’re going to be open during Golden Week!”

Dojima laughed indulgently. “I heard. Do you want to go somewhere during the long holiday?”

“We can go somewhere!?” Her eyes went wide with surprise which, when Tsuna gave it a second of thought, only made sense.

“How about it?” Dojima directed at him. “Got any plans yet?”

“…Nothing in particular, no,” he said, wanting to give the man a chance despite thinking things would fall through.

“Then let’s all go somewhere together!” Nanako said. “Junes! Junes Junes Junes!”

Dojima gave her a skeptical look. “You’re sure you want to go to Junes? We can go there anytime… Ah, c’mon, girl, time for bed. It’s getting late.”

“All right. ♫ Every day’s great at your Junes! ♫”

It was … pathetic how excited she was to go to that store, he thought as he cleaned up. He dearly hoped the poor child made friends at her school that would take the place of such a sad attachment.

That night he checked the Midnight Channel just in case; no person was visible.

####  30 April 2011, Saturday

They ran into Yukiko on the way to school for the half day.

“O-oh… Good morning,” she said softly.

Whatever fog there had been during the night had cleared up, leaving them with a sunny day. “Good morning,” he said politely, the same coming from his family overlapping his own greeting.

“I’m able to come back to school again,” she said, as if that wasn’t immediately obvious.

He smiled serenely, at the very least pleased that she was able to resume her life.

“Well, it was nice talking to you,” she said as the sound of Chie’s voice was heard getting closer. Her friend grabbed her arm excitedly and hauled her off, babbling at her.

‘Well, okay,’ he thought in amusement.

They had lunch at the Rokudo house, prepped, and headed into the TV World. They got through the castle quickly enough that Tsuna was willing to go for the boss-type Shadow a day early. He could see it was named “Contrarian King” due to the overlay and, with his selection of Personas to help, they were able to take the thing down. For whatever reason it dropped a war fan, which was completely useless to them, but might fetch a good price at Daidara’s.

Sin arched a brow at him, clearly asking a question. He nodded in return.

When he got “home” Dojima was there, shockingly. The man gave him an absent greeting and turned back to the television, so Tsuna headed up to drop off his things. Back downstairs he started dinner, amused that Nanako abandoned the TV to come watch and give what help she could.

When they sat down to eat Dojima was flipping through a small notebook. “The fourth and the fifth… I think I might be able to get those two days off.”

Nanako perked up. “Really!? …Really?”

Dojima grimaced. “What, you don’t believe me?”

Nanako looked almost sullen for a moment. “…It’s always canceled.”

“N-not every year!” Dojima protested. “I know you want to go to Junes, but… I wouldn’t mind going a little farther out of the neighborhood.”

Nanako perked up again. “Really? Can we go on a trip?”

“Uh… Well, it might be okay to go on a trip once in a while. I’m sure it’ll be crowded everywhere, though.”

Nanako clapped. “Yaaaaay! We’re going on a trip!”

Dojima hummed. “All right, all right. Then we need to think of someplace to go. How about you…?” he asked, glancing at Tsuna. “Wanna come along with us?”

‘Only for Nanako’s sake,’ he thought, then nodded. “Of course.”

“Yeah! Let’s all go together!”

Dojima smiled, though it looked a bit pained. “Looks like Nanako wants us all to go.”

“Let’s bring bentos!”

“Hm? Yeah, good idea,” Dojima said. “But I can’t cook, and Nanako’s not good enough to make them by herself. Well, it’ll work out. That’s what we’ve got this guy for, huh, Nanako?”

“Yaaaay! Bentos!”

Tsuna smiled indulgently. Inside he was mildly annoyed at his uncle’s jest.

####  01 May 2011, Sunday

Sin joined him for his weekly shopping trip with Nanako and helped to carry everything. His cousin was a lot less shy around his lover, which was gratifying. Depending on how long they ended up staying in this dimension, they might have quite a bit of time to build a relationship with the girl and hopefully see that she got off to a good start.

After the groceries were put away and he had made up a bento for her for her lunch, and told her he would be away for most of the day, he took off with Sin, first to put together a picnic basket, and second to step with him to the Mountain of Death, as many a Reborn had “affectionately” called the location.

The waterfall burbled and splashed into the pond beneath, the sound going well with the songs of various birds and the hum of insects. The weather so near Namimori was sunny, as opposed to Inaba’s cloudy heavens, which made things that much more pleasant.

A blanket was flicked into place and the basket set atop it, then the two of them flopped down to just relax for a bit in the warm spring air. There was a light breeze, which thankfully was not enough to chill them, and if gave an extra sense of life to the nearby trees by making the leaves dance.

Several minutes later he sat up and manifested a Bounding Box, one that would cover the entire clearing, then attacked the picnic basket. Food quickly found itself set out for the two of them, and they happily tucked in.

It was interesting, he thought, how feelings didn’t need words. He was perfectly aware of how Sin, and the rest of his family, felt, without needing to hear them expressed out loud, and he knew his family could do the same with him.

A smirking Sin gave him a look that said, “Of course we can.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. His family was like a bunch of cats, unruly and assholish, and yet adorable and beloved.

Sin preened, of course.

“Any ideas on how to troll your counterpart? It’d take a miracle for him to not come knocking.”

Sin shrugged. “Colonnello will get frustrated soon, if he isn’t already. That’ll bring Lal, at the very least, and through her, Reborn. Colonnello would never want to admit directly to Reborn that he’s failed at something, and Lal has too much common sense to let pride get in her way.”

“Except when it comes to admitting she might actually like her kohai,” he muttered.

Sin laughed. “There are days when I wonder if the whole reason he goes after the unobtainable is because she’s safe, rather like how Bianchi tends to go for Reborn. All the trappings of romance with none of the bother.”

“On her side, anyway,” he said. “Then again, she never was right in the head. It’s surprising how many level-headed, sane, intelligent women there are in CEDEF considering what a narcissistic psycho the Tsow is. Then again, that probably explains why the place runs as well as it does, failings notwithstanding.”

“Well, there are things they wouldn’t be able to avert, not with the Tsow in charge. At least in this dimension, it’s no longer a problem,” Sin said sunnily.

He still hadn't asked how his family had taken the Tsow out. That he was gone was enough.

“So, Golden Week?”

He grimaced. “I’m expecting that to fall through. I know, I know, my expectations when it comes to blood family are so low that they were long ago melted in the core of the world, but… I want to give the man a chance, but I just can’t believe it’ll be any different. No blood family of mine has ever…” He shook his head. “I have high hopes for Nanako, though.”

“She’s a cute little thing,” Sin said, “and seems very interested in cooking. Perhaps for the wrong reasons, but if she has the same knack for it… She could go far with that kind of talent and the right backing. It’s a shame that Caim probably wouldn’t be interested in being that backer from the shadows.”

“I can always ask, but that’s assuming we’re even around long enough to know that she would want to take that as her profession. Or maybe she could eventually become the chef at the Amagi Inn?”

“If we get in good enough with the Arcobaleno, maybe one of them will take an interest?” Sin said, then immediately shook his head. “No, bad idea mixing mafia with an innocent civilian girl. No matter how much Lal might be a decent role model, it just wouldn’t work.”

He sighed. “Yeah. It’s a shame. Lal can be uptight, but she knows her stuff and she knows how to make people pay attention, and not give her any unwarranted shit. I wonder sometimes if she’d be better off—assuming she could learn to unbend a bit first—teaching women classes on defense, assertiveness, and so forth. Besides, only misogynistic twats call women bitches for standing up for themselves and their rights.”

“Mm. I always held some admiration for Bianchi’s constancy, talent, and confidence. It’s just a shame she’s serving up side dishes of delusion and a distinct lack of empathy along with her usual.”

He sighed again. Bianchi could be so amazing, and yet… “Eh, enough about her. She just reminds me that blood family isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.”

After they finished eating they took a dip in the pool at the base of the waterfall, and then moved on to far more frisky activities.

####  02 May 2011, Monday

For some reason Tsuna found himself diverted down to the river while walking home. There was an old man there, quietly fishing, so he stopped to enjoy the atmosphere. The old man was happy enough to ramble at him about the art of fishing—quietly, of course, so as not to scare off the fish—and make recommendations on gear should he wish to try himself.

The man even handed over a spare rod and some bait for him to make use of. Tsuna gave it genuine consideration. It could be a relaxing hobby, and personally obtaining fish from a known clean source would add a certain something to any meals he made from his spoils.

He went home in a contemplative mood, having decided earlier to take an extra day off from training.

The news that night was of minor interest, but also foreboding, if only because he could guess what was coming.

“An Inaba Credit Union ATM to the north of town was destroyed today by an earth mover, and all cash inside was stolen,” the commentator informed them. “The vehicle, which was abandoned at the scene, had been reported stolen by a local contractor. Since the culprit was able to act quickly before the security guards arrived on the scene, the police have…”

“Dad’s late,” Nanako said dully, then hopped up when the phone rang to go answer it. She had to go up on her toes, because the half-height cabinet the phone rested on was almost too high for her. “Hello, Dad? Yeah, I’m okay. …Yeah. …Yeah. …Okay. …All right.” She turned and held the handset out toward him. “He said to give you the phone. He can’t take those days off.”

Tsuna sighed and got up.

“Hello?” Dojima said. “Yeah, sorry, but I’m going to be late tonight.”

‘As if that wasn’t already glaringly clear,’ he thought.

“Make sure you lock up before you go to sleep. And about that time off on the fourth and fifth… One of the younger guys got sick. And, well, that case he’s handling, we can’t just let it sit. Looks like I’m the only one who can take over for him.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, and he was, for Nanako’s sake more than his uncle’s.

“Sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden. Um, how’s Nanako holding up? Would you mind comforting her for me? Thanks. All right, then, see you.”

The line went dead, so he placed the handset back in its cradle and looked at his cousin. She had that look about her, the one that said she’d known it was coming and had foolishly held out hope against it, and was now upset with herself.

“Want to do something fun after we finish eating?” he asked.

Nanako raised sorrowful, questioning eyes toward him.

“Ever tried making things with clay?”

Nanako’s confused look answered that question.

“I was thinking… We could make some fish or something cute, and then get some frames with glass on both sides, and hang them in the windows.” He smiled when she started to look interested.

They spent the time prior to her bedtime in a friendly contest, and she went to bed with a lighter heart.

####  03 May 2011, Tuesday

“Oh, morning,” Nanako greeted him. She was in her usual spot, watching television.

He was about to return the greeting and see about breakfast, but the doorbell rang, so he immediately pivoted around to be the one to answer it. He didn’t have any hinky feelings, but it was better to be safe.

Sin, Mukuro, and Hayato were standing there giving him a look that said, “Don’t even bother to try saying no.”

“If you’re free today,” Sin said, “why don’t we go somewhere?” He looked past Tsuna to Nanako. “How about you? Want to come along?”

“Um…”

Tsuna looked over his shoulder. “We could go to Junes.”

Nanako’s eyes went wide. “Junes? I can come?”

“Of course you can,” Mukuro said smoothly, giving her an inviting smile that was remarkably not creepy.

Nanako hopped up and ran to fetch her set of keys, then accompanied them on a trip to her favorite place ever. Since Tsuna hadn't yet eaten they started in the food court, despite the food itself being a desperate cry for help by whoever had “cooked” the stuff.

Mukuro smirked at him. “Such a snob,” he mouthed.

Tsuna wrinkled his nose and started in on his grilled fish, not entirely surprised when Yosuke popped up on his radar wearing a Junes apron. The boy beelined for their table and came to a stop.

“Why’d you guys come to a place like this during Golden Week?”

“It’s not like there’s a lot to do in town,” Hayato pointed out.

“I love Junes!” Nanako declared.

Tsuna could almost hear the unspoken, “Fight me,” based on her expression. He had another bite of his breakfast and nearly groaned when he saw Chie and Yukiko also pop up on his radar and make a beeline for their table.

“Ah, yeah,” he said once he could. “Everyone, this is my cousin. Nanako-chan, these three are Hanamura Yosuke, Satonaka Chie, and Amagi Yukiko. They’re in my class at school.”

Nanako nodded and continued what she’d been saying. “We were supposed to go on a real trip somewhere. We were going to make bentos.”

“Wow!” Yukiko said, looking honestly impressed. “You can make bentos, Nanako-chan?”

Chie, however, immediately looked Tsuna’s way. “Oh, so you’re the family cook? Pretty impressive, ‘Onii-san’!”

Nanako looked nonplussed for a moment, then mumbled, “Onii-san…”

“Whoa, you can cook?” Yosuke said. “Well, that’d mean you’d be great with your ha—um, never mind, that sounded wrong.” He laughed nervously.

“I-I’m a pretty good cook, too, you know,” Chie boasted hollowly. “Probably. If you’d asked, I would’ve whipped up some bentos as easy as pie. Yeah…”

Yosuke adopted a skeptical look and said, “Yeah, no.”

“What makes you think I can’t cook!? Let’s have a cook-off and see for ourselves!” Chie demanded.

He shared a look with his family. They were all thinking it, that these two argued like an old married couple in the making.

“My, my, doth the lady protest too much?” Yosuke mocked. “And hey, I never said I cooked. But I have this weird feeling… Like I’d win anyway.”

Yukiko laughed lightly. “I can understand that.”

“What the—Yukiko!?” Chie said, looking betrayed.

“Hey, maybe your little cousin can be the judge,” Yosuke said. “I bet we’ll make something that ranks up there with your mom’s cooking!”

Nanako looked at him blankly. “I don’t have a mom. She died in an accident.”

Yosuke went pale and figuratively backpedaled. “I-I see. Um… Sorry, I had no idea…”

“It’s okay. Even if I don’t have a mom, I have Dad with me. …And now I have a brother, too. And I’m having a lot of fun today! I love Junes!”

“Y-yeah?” Yosuke stuttered. “That’s good.”

“We’ll play with you any time you want, Nanako-chan!” Chie volunteered.

“Yeah, that could be a lot of fun,” Yukiko said supportively.

“C’mon, Nanako-chan. Let’s go get a soda!” Yosuke said, then hastened off to the counter with her.

“She’s a strong girl,” Yukiko said softly, her gaze following the child.

“Yeah. She makes me feel like I’m the little kid here. That’s it, I’m gonna get something for Nanako-chan, too!” Chie hopped up and dashed off, Yukiko right behind her.

Tsuna shared another look with his family, one of amusement. The moment those kids entered the scene, it was talk talk talk and boundless enthusiasm.

Nanako skipped back over and smiled cheerfully. “Do you want something, too?” she asked, which was odd considering he was eating breakfast.

He blinked when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Justice Arcana.

—flashed up in front of him.

“Maybe we can share some takoyaki?” his cousin said, including his family in the look.

Sin smirked, if only because of Skull’s animal companion, and gladly went with her to the counter. When he came back he brought cups of green tea with him, which got him a grateful smile from Tsuna, along with various nibbles.

Nanako chattered happily about how much fun she had with her “brother” the previous evening, which made Chie and Yukiko give him interested looks, as if the very idea of a boy who would do such a thing was both surprising and attractive. Good husband material, in other words. Chie’s mouth quirked, which meant she probably remembered the part where he claimed to be gay.

“Once we both get a little better at it,” he said, “I’ll have to hunt down some frames. We can put the best of them up, or the ones we like the most.”

Once everyone was done eating—Yosuke had been dragged back into his job shortly after buying Nanako something to drink—they cruised through Junes to check out what was for sale, made sure Nanako got a few treats to her delight, then parted ways for the day.

Nanako was hauled off by the girls for some girl time, and Tsuna and his family headed off to the Rokudo house to get in a few hours of training, though the gains from the castle were quickly becoming so low as to be pointless. No one thought it would be fun and fruitful to sweep the castle multiple times over in a session for piddly returns, so they agreed to wait until another crisis arose to go back in.


	6. λ21: 06: 04-20 May 2011

## λ21  
06: 04-20 May 2011

####  04 May 2011, Wednesday

He spent a fair amount of time with Nanako during Nature Day, having brought out blunt children’s scissors, child-safe glue, and fabric scraps, mostly to show her how she could craft dolls as something to keep her hands busy while watching television. He mentioned getting some buttons or markers so she could use something other than fabric for the eyes and such, but for the moment she was happy to play with what they had.

After lunch he responded to Chie stopping by and asking if he had time by heading out to do some martial arts practice with her, which resulted in another rank for the Chariot Arcana.

He had yet to bother Dojima with the question of whether or not his friends could come over, so he spent the evening with Nanako, then turned back so he could spend the same amount of time with his family. Being a bit short on sleep was worth it.

“So, as you can imagine, Vongola is in a complete pother over the Tsow’s mysterious death,” Xeul said gleefully.

“Who’d they promote?”

“Lal, for the time being, though she was more than a bit insulted that it was based on her former status as a quasi-Arcobaleno, more so than her actual skills.”

“I can’t say I blame her,” Hayato said, wrinkling his nose. “How people are so blind to the collective distaste of the Arcobaleno to being seen as that first and anything else second…”

Tsuna manfully suppressed his amusement at the irony of Hayato being the one to say that. “If she’s in charge, the odds of her coming here to investigate personally drop dramatically.”

“…Which means she might bump it straight to Reborn,” Chikusa said. “I wonder if I can work up some sort of early warning system that would twig to certain signatures.”

“A rune-based solution deployed around some or all of the town?” Mukuro said. “That would be a massive undertaking, though we do have what we did for Namimori as a starting point of sorts.”

“Speaking of which,” Daemon said, “we need to check in on Nana, see if she’s back from her honeymoon. I really want to know about her bloodline.” A window opened briefly on the home they knew she’d be occupying, but there was no evidence that they were back yet.

“Damn.” Sure, it might not matter in the long run, but he wanted to know. He moved into the kitchen with the intent of crafting a magnificent dinner for his beloved family. Despite having been in Japan again for over a decade, he went with Italian dishes given that he was the only true son of Japan amongst them.

####  05 May 2011, Thursday

After breakfast and washing up, Nanako sat back down to amuse herself with crafting dolls, so Tsuna wandered off into town. Part way to the Rokudo house he was nudged off course, so he followed his intuition and changed direction, going through the shopping district and to the shrine they had left Amagi at.

He had the distinct sensation he was being watched, but was having difficulty in pinning down the origin. The shrine was still badly-maintained, with dust furring the wood, dulled paint, and a grungy looking offering box.

As he turned to go a yip caught his attention, and he directed his gaze upward, to the roof of the shrine. There was a fox up there, wearing a red bib with some kind of pink markings on it. Between one second and the next the fox was behind him—which allowed him to see that the pink markings were hearts, and that the bib had a ruffled edging—holding an ema plaque in its mouth.

Tsuna slowly crouched down and accepted the ema when the fox pushed its snout forward like an offering.

_Please help Grandpa’s legs get better. — Keita_

Stuck to the back of the plaque was an unusually-shaped leaf, something he did not offhand recall having seen around town amongst the plant life.

An old man entered the shrine area, causing the fox to dash for cover, and approached Tsuna, his gait slow and his back hunched.

“Oh, not every day you see young’uns like you around here,” the old man said. “Nobody lives here at this shrine.”

‘Why would they?’ he wondered.

“I come by to tidy things up once in a while, but lately my legs are so achy, I just can’t do it. I’ve been tryin’ to get this place up to snuff, but there just isn’t enough money to go around. Well, I s’pose I’ll pay my respects. If my legs don’t heal, I can’t maintain the shrine. That, and… I won’t be able to visit Keita anymore. He’s my grandson, y’know.”

Tsuna blinked at the amount of information he was being given from a complete stranger, who apparently did not require any kind of verbal response. The man must be … lonely?

The old man started to move forward, but stopped and did a comically slow double-take. “Hmm!? What’s that you got in your hand there? Could it be…!?”

Tsuna held the leaf up so the man could see more clearly.

“That leaf! That’s it! Way back when, my grandmother always used to say a leaf shaped like that was the best kind of ache remedy out there! Ah, what memories! But how’d you get your hands on this!? I didn’t think you could find those in the mountains anymore. P-please, young man! Can I trouble you to spare me that leaf!?”

Clearly the man had been spending too much time around excitable youths to devolve into that kind of speech. Tsuna smiled serenely and offered the leaf up. Perhaps later he would review his memory of the event to see if one of his family could pinpoint what the thing was.

The old man carefully took the leaf and brought it closer to his face so he could squint at it. “Ooh, this is it, this is it… Now let’s see here…”

Tsuna averted his gaze from the old man’s rather impolite actions in placing said leaf onto his leg.

“Oooh, I can feel it! It’s working!” the old man said, his expression one of muted bliss. “Amazing! The pain I’ve been feeling for who knows how long—it just up and vanished! Why, I feel better than I have in years! You really helped me out, young man! I’m so grateful! Now I can go visit my grandson! I’d better pay thanks to the shrine for bringing us together like this!”

The old man headed to the offertory box with far more spring in his step, dropped in some coins, and trundled off happily.

‘So, that happened.’

The fox darted back into view looking pleased, then dashed over to the offertory box to peer inside briefly. It came back to stand in front of Tsuna, allowing him to see just how battle-scarred the creature was. It had somehow gained a mouthful of leaves in the time it took for it to turn away from the box and come to stand in front of Tsuna, and pushed its snout forward again.

Tsuna accepted them and the fox yipped again, somehow conveying a sense of mirth. Given the way the fox kept looking between the leaves he was holding and the offertory box, Tsuna started to get the impression the creature was offering a service of some kind in exchange for help with the shrine.

The fox yipped again, and then—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Hermit Arcana.

—flashed up in front of him.

Not being entirely clear on the details yet, but willing to go with it, Tsuna nodded, made his own offering, then left after a parting wave to the creature. He stepped over to the Rokudo house the moment he safely could.

“Why do you look like you just had another strange experience?” Chikusa said.

Tsuna rolled his eyes and displayed his “magic” leaves. “Get a pensieve, please? I’d like to share.” While that was being handled he fetched a small box out of storage to put the leaves in, to keep them safe, and set it on the table for the time being.

Chikusa produced a pensieve as the rest of his family gathered around, Tsuna dropped a memory strand in, then they all touched the surface.

Back in the real world he was amused to see the WTF faces his family members were sporting.

“Okay, well, Japan,” Hayato said finally. “Supernatural creatures, messengers of the gods…? Something.”

“Anyone have a clue what species these leaves are?” he asked. “As you heard, the old man said his own grandparent used to get them from the mountains around here. Or do we need to track down a botanist?”

The general consensus was, “Not a clue.”

“I will get a good photograph of one and track down a botanist,” Xeul volunteered. “I’m not holding out much hope, though, considering these are somewhere in the category of an old home remedy and a supernatural creature was involved.”

Chikusa had a thoughtful look on his face. “Just holding one seems to do nothing, so perhaps intent is necessary for their healing factor to kick in? Intent and belief?”

“Considering that many things are a matter of intent and belief, I would say yes,” Daemon replied.

Tsuna spent the rest of the day playing Cluedo with his family, then headed home to prepare dinner.

“The prime suspect in yesterday’s ATM robbery in northern Inaba was arrested earlier today,” the news announcer informed them. “The alleged thief is Sushin Pumena, a twenty-six year old former employee of the company which reported the stolen vehicle. According to the police investigation, Sushin Pumena was…”

The front door opening diverted their attention away from the TV. Dojima walked in, his body language radiating weariness. “I’m home,” he announced, then sighed. “How many days is he gonna call in sick? These rookies lately sure are—”

“Welcome back!” Nanako interrupted.

Dojima looked at his daughter and sighed almost imperceptibly. “Nanako… I’m sorry I broke my promise again.”

“Oh, um, onii-san and his friends played with me instead.”

“I see…” Dojima gave him an opaque look. “Thanks.”

“Oh, that’s a Junes bag,” Nanako said excitedly. “What’s in it?”

Dojima laughed tiredly. “Good eye. Well, today is Children’s Day… So I brought you a present,” he said as he draped his jacket over the sofa and folded himself down to a seat at the table.

Nanako cheered and eagerly poked into the bag, hauling out the contents. “Oooh, a t-shirt.”

Dojima laughed again. “It took me a while to decide what to get you. You like it?” The look he was giving Nanako did speak of a deep fondness for the child.

“Oh, wow, there’s a picture on the front! That’s so funny!” Nanako laughed.

His uncle reached into the bag and pulled out something else, then offered it to Tsuna. It was a swimsuit with an odd design on it. “I got you something, too. Not that you’re still a child or anything, but fair’s fair.”

Tsuna smiled as he accepted it, torn between thinking the man was trying, or that it was simply him paying lip service to conventions. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. I thought you might need one soon. Well, then… Let’s eat.”

Tsuna nodded and got up long enough to prepare a plate for his uncle, then resumed his place at the table.

####  06 May 2011, Friday

After school (and having listened to any number of students whining about upcoming exams) he stopped by the shrine again. The fox did not appear until his fellow victims of school stepped out of the area, which he found odd, but when it did it had another ema in its mouth.

The handwriting was rounded, which seemed to be popular with girls around his age.

_I want things to go well with the person I like!_

He looked at the fox, who kept glancing back at the offertory box. “You believe if the wishes left here keep getting fulfilled, more people will make offerings and the shrine will benefit?”

The fox yipped and tossed its head.

Tsuna hummed and nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” He met back up with his family, at something of a loss after having explained the situation, then let his intuition guide him after Mukuro suggested it, having said, “I don’t understand how anyone could reasonably expect to handle this without something like that. The average person isn’t going to ask every person in town about it, after all. They’d be more likely to give it up as hopeless from the start.”

His family lounged outside the school when he went in. Almost immediately he noticed a girl lingering near the shoe boxes, her hand just moving away from one of them. She spotted him and let out a high-pitched sound of surprise, then looked back at the shoe boxes.

“Oh, I must have made a mistake! This is _your_ shoe box!” She blushed and scurried away, but not before Tsuna got a tag on her.

He checked his box and found a note had been slipped in through the vent. It read: _Excuse me for writing this to you out of the blue. I held my emotions back all this time because I didn’t want to disrupt your studies, but I just had to tell you… I love you!_

His window showed that she had been spying from around the corner and watched him read the note. Another blush ensued. “I didn’t even have the courage to sign it,” she muttered, “and yet a totally random person now knows my secret! Argh! What’s the point of trying to be secretive any more!? I’ve already embarrassed myself this much, I might as well go confess!” She darted off again, so Tsuna stored the window. Presumably he would coincidentally find out more later.

He headed back out to rejoin his friends, collected the rest of his family, and stepped over to Tokyo to visit a cinema with them.

That evening Dojima was already present when he got in, which made him do a double-take. His uncle was seated at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.

“Hey,” Dojima said. “How’re things? You should be used to life here by now. You bored? Have a seat. We haven’t had time to talk like this since you got here, huh?” His uncle looked like a man desperately casting about for a topic to discuss. “Uh, well, how’s school?”

He smiled. “It’s not much different from before.”

“I see… That’s good to hear. Your school days will be over before you know it. Make sure you have fun while you can,” Dojima said sagely. “What else…? Oh, yeah… How about your friends? Looks like you have plenty of ’em.” For whatever reason his uncle scowled. “I’m not saying who you can and can’t hang out with, but… You know what I’m talking about, right?”

Tsuna’s smile slipped into its serene form. “Are you concerned that my friends from Tokyo…?”

“Huh. So you did notice…” Dojima nodded, more to himself than to Tsuna. “And I’m worried, what with those two deaths recently. I wish I didn’t have to consider things like this, but … the killings began around the time you came to town. My job is all about eliminating the random element. I look only at the facts. If you get caught up in my job, then…”

Nanako appeared from the staircase with a frown on her face. “…What’s wrong? Onii-san hasn’t done anything bad.”

“I-I know,” Dojima said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“But you’re bullying him,” she said stubbornly.

“I’m not bullying him. We were just having a little talk. Maybe we should be thinking about dinner.”

Nanako face took on a “I know what you’re doing” expression before she looked expectantly at Tsuna.

He smiled at her and nodded. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

“Sheesh,” Dojima muttered. “She’s really taking a shine to you.”

He politely ignored that as he and Nanako began dinner prep.

It was not until after the meal had been consumed and Nanako went off to play that Dojima said, “Look… Just don’t get yourself involved in anything dangerous. As long as you’re safe, everything’s fine.”

‘No, everything will not simply be fine.’

Dojima did look genuinely worried for his sake, so it did not surprise him when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Hierophant Arcana.

—flashed up.

“Things here might be a little different from what you’re used to, but this is a good town. Though it’s a little dangerous right at the moment… Well, I’m going to make an early night of it for once, get some sleep. ’Night.”

Tsuna watched his uncle go in another quandary of twisted and conflicting emotions. He checked to make sure the front door was locked, then headed to his room to flop down onto his futon. He was being unfair with not taking the man on his own merits, starting with a clean slate, but blood family had a nasty habit of fucking him over and that was hard to shove aside in an attempt to see things from an unbiased perspective.

Daemon stepped into the room and tossed up a Bounding Box, then laid down next to him, not saying a word, just letting Tsuna take comfort in his nearness and the love from his chosen family. He could see where his uncle was coming from with the temporal coincidence of their arrival and sudden murders, but he thought that juxtaposition was a lazy way of looking at things. His status as a bastard and his friends being from a major city muddied things, and was also a sign of reflexive bias.

And his uncle was surprised that his own daughter liked Tsuna so much?

He sighed and rolled onto his side, so he could cuddle up to his brother, and was asleep before he knew it.

####  07 May 2011, Saturday

“Oh.” Love-Note-Girl noticed him as he was swapping his school slippers for shoes and came closer. “Hey, listen. The confession! It worked! I can’t believe it! I’m so happy. I’m glad I got his shoe box confused with yours.”

“I’m glad things worked out,” he said politely, giving her a nod.

“Oh, that’s right! I need to give thanks at the Tatsuhime Shrine! My wish came true! I’ll make a big offering!” She smiled widely and dashed off.

‘Hopefully the fox will be pleased,’ he thought as he finished up and left the building with his family.

Daemon cornered him when he walked into the Rokudo house and said, “She’s a match. Your mother is also directly related to Giotto.”

“Holy fuck,” he muttered. “I never stood a chance, not that they would likely ever have found the connection. Right, I’m just going to assume this is always true when I’m shunted into my own life, unless I somehow come through looking vastly different.” He threw up his hands and headed for the kitchen.

####  08 May 2011, Sunday

He was barely awake and functioning when his phone rang. He eyed it suspiciously, wondering if Margaret was going to tell him all about things he already knew again, but when answered it turned out to be Chie, who had somehow gotten her hands on his number. That in and of itself was suspicious, but he shrugged it off.

“Um, hello? This is Chie,” she said. “I was wondering… Would you mind hanging out with me today? I need to get my mind off studying for a while and do something active.”

“Sure,” he said, and made plans to meet up at the little park area next to the river at the flood plain, after the shopping was done, then headed downstairs to make sure Nanako got breakfast.

Chie looked pleased with the spot once they were both there. “This looks like a good spot,” she said. “Y’know, for my kicking skills. I tried practicing at home, but my parents yelled at me for putting a hole in the shoji.”

He considered finding a spot and setting it up to be more training friendly, and then “stumbling” over it so he could show the girl, but that would mean she would be vulnerable if she went on her own to an out of the way place, so he mentally shunted the idea to the bin.

By the time they were done he had managed another rank with the girl, and she left in a much better, more relaxed mood.

####  12 May 2011, Thursday

The week had gone by in a haze of exams, which had most students looking harried and stressed out. When the last one was finished and the teacher had exited, Yosuke stretched mightily and said, “It’s _finally_ over. What a load off! I bet every student feels like this after exams are over.”

“Hey, not so loud,” Chie protested. “So, what did you write for number seven? The one about what ‘that’ referred to in the sentence.”

“Um… I put ‘her sorrowful expression’,” Yukiko replied, looking distracted as usual.

“Oh, crap! I put ‘the rice cakes on top of the table’ for that.”

“Rice cakes?” Yukiko’s expression went from distracted to confused. “Wait, was that what the story was about?”

Chie grimaced. “All right, I’m giving up on composition. I’m gonna bet it all on geography! What did you choose for the tallest mountain in the solar system?”

“Olympus mons,” Mukuro said smoothly.

Chie looked crestfallen. “Oh, seriously? I chose the wrong one…”

“Oh, I put that one, too,” Yukiko said.

Yosuke looked upset. “You, too!? Then it’s probably the right answer.” He sighed. “Boy, I can’t _wait_ for our grades to be posted out in the hall where _everyone_ can see ’em. Geez.”

After a moment of silence Tsuna started packing up his things, but moved more slowly when nearby gossip filtered in.

“Hey, did you hear? A TV station’s filming here in town.”

“They’re probably just doing more stuff about that hanging corpse case.”

“No, it’s not that,” the first voice said. “You know the highway nearby? They’re gonna cover those biker gangs that hang around here. A friend of mine goes to the biker meetings sometimes. I heard it from him.”

“Dude, what’re you doing hanging out with a guy in a biker gang? Well, anyway… What do you think about tomorrow’s group blind date? We were gonna meet outside, but… It’s gonna rain soon, right? Won’t it be better to play it safe tomorrow, too?”

Tsuna lost interest and sped up his movements.

“Biker gang?” Yukiko said haltingly.

“Oh, yeah,” Chie said. “They raise a ruckus from time to time. I guess your place is too far away to hear ’em.”

“We live right by the road,” Yosuke volunteered. “The noise can drive you inane.”

“I hear some guys at this school are part it of it, too,” Chie said.

Yosuke nodded. “Yeah, I know there are some rumors about a first-year student here who’s a total hellraiser. One of the guys working at Junes said the dude’s been a legend ever since middle school. Although… Was he in a biker gang…?”

“D-did you say he was a legend?” Yukiko asked.

“Uh, it’s not what you think, Yukiko,” Chie replied hastily.

He left school feeling disgruntled that rain was predicted, then annoyed when he spotted Lal Mirch flitting through town like a tourist. He snorted softly and tilted his head that way, which caused Sin to groan softly.

“Maybe she’ll have the tact to stick to the fringes,” Sin muttered. “She’s usually got a handle on that whole common sense thing and lack of dramatics while on the job.”

“Might as well let her get a look,” he said. “Let’s head to Junes so she can try to blend in with the crowd. So long as no one gets a good look at her face, she might be just fine.” A raised eyebrow at Mukuro got a nod back, so he expected one of his Mists to end up poking around in her head again soonish.

####  13 May 2011, Friday

He stopped by the shrine after being reminded of that girl’s wish by seeing her in the hallways. The fox had the ema in its mouth and seemed to be inquiring about it.

“She confessed to the guy, and it went well. She said she was going to make an offering, but she might have been delayed because of exams.”

The fox made the ema disappear and howled … happily, which caused the Hermit Social Link to rank up to two.

Before he left he dropped another offering in the box, though he expected people having their wishes come true would do far more in the end than a simple donation of coin on his part.

Dojima was already home by the time he got there. His uncle was seated on the sofa, engrossed in a newspaper, while Nanako watched television, though she jumped up as soon as she saw him so she could help him with dinner.

Tsuna was near-instantly in a bitchy mood that evening because once again it was clear the adult of the household blithely assumed his underage dependents would take care of making sure there was food served, rather than taking the occasional stab at providing a meal himself.

‘Oh well,’ he thought. ‘At least his deficiencies mean I don’t have to suffer through store-bought stuff or inept cooking.’

“Young men recklessly riding their motorcycles, disturbing the peace of a quiet rural town,” was the topic of that night’s newscast. “Our special report took a turn for the violent when one of the apparent leaders attacked the camera crew!”

The picture switched from a view of the announcer to footage of the incident. Shown was a blurry-faced young man with bleached hair, garbed in a Yasogami High uniform. “The hell are you punks doing here!?”

Dojima’s newspaper went down so he could see the screen. “That voice…”

“This ain’t a show! Get bent!”

“Still up to the same old tricks?” Dojima said, sighing.

Nanako looked over her shoulder to ask, “Do you know him?”

“Mm, well, I know him through work. His name’s Tatsumi Kanji, and he’s quite a handful. He’s been crushing biker gangs in the area since middle school. But, I thought he got into high school and started attending class…”

Tsuna spared a look of disbelief for his uncle. Was he so far away he couldn’t properly see the uniform? The same one his own nephew wore six days a week?

“Huh,” said Nanako.

Dojima shook his head. “Man, that blur sure is pointless. It’s completely obvious who that is. The guy’s family runs a historic textile shop. I think what happened was, he crushed the local biker gangs all by himself because the noise kept his mother up at night. It’s a nice gesture, but he’s way too violent. At this rate, his mother’ll have to apologize again.”

Nanako evidently got bored, as she turned back to the television. “Oh, the weather report’s showing on the bottom. It’s going to rain tomorrow. I’ll make sure to hang the laundry inside the house.”

‘At least the news people are consistent in their idiocy,’ he thought. It wasn’t until he was up in his room that a thought hit him, so he opened his laptop, then slid a window into place so he could mention it to his family.

“What’s up?” Ken said, being the first one to notice him.

“I had an idea,” he replied in Spanish, “and I wanted to see if it was crazy or not.”

Ken nodded and called for the others.

“You watch the news this evening?”

They nodded. “It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so we need to have someone keep an eye out at midnight,” Mukuro said, then visibly paused. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. You see it, too?”

“Yes, darling, I think I do. The boy on the news. You think he’s next.”

Tsuna nodded. “Uh-huh. The others were also featured on the news. One because of the scandal, one because she found the body, and one because the scandal stayed at her inn. And now this boy.”

“We’ll find out tomorrow night, I expect,” Sin said. “Though not necessarily why it happens. I mean, are the Shadows somehow tuning in…”

“It was posited that it’s kinda like the collective unconscious over there,” Hayato said. “That Shadows are pieces of humanity, or human emotion. And we enter through a TV. Why wouldn’t they be tapped in?”

“Mm, people are seeing the broadcasts,” Daemon said slowly, “and it resonates? On the other side? That place is a kind of reflection, or dark side.”

“I could see that,” Sin said, “but not who. Someone is seeing these broadcasts, too, and using them to determine, uh, who’s on the mind of the people and who next to victimize.”

“We can’t very well parse the minds of every citizen of Inaba,” Daemon said with a pained look. “I mean, we could, but that would take ages to do.”

Tsuna shook his head. “I’d rather you didn’t. That’s just too much, and too tiring. Another round or two and something else might come clear as a hint. However, tomorrow, while we’re in school, will you guys do some research on this Tatsumi Kanji kid? Dojima says his family has a textiles place in town, and he’s known for running off gangs who make too much noise and keep his poor mother awake at night. He’s a student at Yasogami, but I think he’s a first year from the way my uncle was talking.”

“Hanamura mentioned a first year yesterday,” Mukuro said. “Might be the same kid.”

“Right,” Daemon said. “We’ll do some recon tomorrow, find out more about the boy and his family.”

“We should probably check any equipment, and prepare to stock up on healing items…”

“We’ll pick up extra food,” Xeul said. “Do some of the prep work for you.”

Tsuna beamed. His family was awesome!

####  14 May 2011, Saturday

The heavens had unleashed by the time he woke up. He only spared it a brief look before he got dressed and stepped over so he could make bentos and breakfast at the Rokudo house. Once his family was taken care of he turned back and stepped to the Dojima house and finished up, then went downstairs to have breakfast with his cousin.

School was boring—of course—and they spent the afternoon doing maintenance on their gear while his twins debriefed them on what they’d dug up.

“Tatsumi’s mother has a textiles place in the shopping district. Tons of fabrics, they do some custom work, that sorta thing. The Amagi Inn does a fair amount of business with them, has for years,” Daemon reported.

“One interesting note was a scarf we noticed there. It was a twin to the one you guys saw in the TV World hotel room, the noose. It was part of a special order made by Yamano Mayumi. She wanted matching scarves, but changed her mind and only purchased the women’s scarf. Odds are she intended the other one for Namatame Taro.”

Tsuna nodded as he went over his trench knives, making certain the knuckle part of them hadn't sustained any nicks that would bite into his skin, and that the blades were keen. A part of him was saying—his intuition perhaps?—that he was missing something very obvious, that they all were, but it was like there was a fog in place, obscuring his sight, the same kind as from that one dream he’d had.

“We’ll poke around a bit more,” Daemon said, “but until we know for sure he’s going to be the one…”

“Well, if we get the same kind of clear picture on the Midnight Channel as we did with Amagi-san, we know it’s a go. Unless there’s something weird going on that day at school, we could just send in clones to take our places, and get our last minute prep done, go in that day, rather than waiting until after school.”

Hayato, Sin, and Mukuro immediately nodded.

He laughed merrily and put his weapons away.

When midnight rolled around it was still raining. Tsuna swung the whiteboard out of the way and waited. Sure enough, a figure appeared. Static and yellow fog obscured quite a bit, but the figure’s hair and posture were very similar to the Tatsumi kid’s.

He sighed and went to bed.

####  15 May 2011, Sunday

The figure appeared again that night. Unlike the night previous, which had been a still image, this one had motion, and it was even more clear who it represented, right down to the symbol on the kid’s shirt. The hair was light enough, the uniform jacket was slung off the figure’s shoulders, and his posture and the way he moved matched what little Tsuna had seen during that news report.

The image still wasn’t clear enough to suggest the boy had been thrown in.

####  16 May 2011, Monday

They were walking through the shopping district doing some casual reconnaissance when they noticed someone about their age speaking with Tatsumi’s mother. The shop windows made it a little hard to see clearly, but figure was wearing a dapper outfit and had on a cap, all in blue.

Tatsumi’s mother suddenly looked toward the back of the shop, at which point the figure in blue bowed and headed out. At around the same time, Tatsumi came strolling down the street toward the shop, and the figure in blue headed straight to him.

Tsuna’s brow went up. Let’s make ourselves uninteresting, shall we? he wrote, before simultaneously opening a window on the two and turning so he appeared to be checking out a handy vending machine.

“T-tomorrow’s fine with me,” Tatsumi stuttered.

“Will you be attending school?” the stranger asked. The voice was curiously androgynous.

“Huh? S-school? ’Course I’m going to school.”

“Then I’ll meet you at the gates after school tomorrow,” Blue said, then strode away.

Tatsumi just stared, then muttered, “D-did he—was he interested…? He’s a guy … and I’m a guy… But… He’s interested in me…?” The kid’s cheeks pinked in embarrassment before he abruptly turned and hastened off to his mother’s shop.

“I have a window on Blue,” Mukuro murmured.

“Awesome,” he said. “There was something off about them, so naturally I’m curious.” He closed his window, because Tatsumi wasn’t doing anything interesting. “Eh, fuck it. I’m gonna go play with Nanako-chan. Catch me up this evening? Or just flash up a message, whichever.”

“You got it, Heul darling.”

Later on, while he was making dinner, he saw— 

Blue is female, crossdressing. Known as the Detective Prince. Will dig deeper.

—flash up in front of him, and subtly nodded, then continued on with his task.

####  17 May 2011, Tuesday

Shirogane Naoto, female, nicknamed Detective Prince. Orphaned when quite young and raised by her grandfather. Presents as male so as to be taken more seriously by the police, and actively attempts to solve cases, following in the footsteps of her grandfather and parents, who were all skilled detectives. Is annoyed at being treated like a child, despite being one. She’s fifteen.

Tsuna’s mouth quirked. So she’s got a chip on her shoulder the size of Canada.

Crazy-Egyptian was waving her was-septre around up front and rabbiting on about something or other, not that Tsuna could much be bothered to pay attention.

We can play detective after school and stalk them, he added.

His family could be heard chuckling softly at that.

Once the final bell rang they swiftly departed the classroom, not giving the usual three (though it was more like two) a chance to delay them with inane chatter, and stationed themselves near the front gates.

Shirogane arrived at a brisk walk right about the time that Tatsumi exited the school, and they met right outside the gates.

“I didn’t keep you waiting, I hope?” Shirogane said.

“N-no, I just got here, too…”

“Let us be off, then.”

The two of them departed and, for whatever reason, walked in silence until they hit the Samegawa Flood Plain. Perhaps they were headed toward Tatsumi’s mother’s shop? Shirogane finally deigned to talk, but most of what came out were seemingly innocent questions, which all centered on but edged around the recent deaths, and they had the effect of confusing the hell out of the boy.

Tatsumi was clearly not the brightest bulb in the package.

They parted not far from the shopping district and Tatsumi continued on to his mother’s shop, whereas Shirogane retreated to nose around town some more. The very fact that she was paying so much attention to Tatsumi was interesting and meant she had likely picked up on the connection between the deaths (or disappearance) of those featured on area news reports.

Either way, Tatsumi was still in the real world.

At midnight, however, he realized that at some point in the intervening hours, the kid had been taken, because he showed up live and in colour on the Midnight Channel. He couldn’t quite figure out what the building was being shown, mostly because Tatsumi rose up to block most of it off.

The boy was lacking any upper clothing, which was one possible hint. That he was blushing was another.

“Hel- _lo_ , dear viewers. It’s time for ‘Bad, Bad Bathhouse’!” Tatsumi said in a rather swishy-sounding voice. “Tonight I’ll introduce a superb site for those searching for sublime love that surpasses the separation of the sexes!”

The camera pulled back to show that the kid was dressed only in a fundoshi.

“I’m your host, Tatsumi Kanji, serving you this scandalously special sneak-in report! Goodness gracious, just imagine the things that might happen to me there! Ooo~ooh! Well, then, let’s get this show on the road! Tootaloo!” He turned and did a weird version of a campy sneak-walk and exited through a set of shoji at the back.

Tsuna blinked a few times, but it wasn’t like he hadn't seen this possibility coming. Tatsumi had been flustered by the very idea of a boy his age being “interested” in him, so he was probably suffering from severe confusion over his sexuality.

He pursed his lips as a window popped open and his family were all wearing similarly quirky expressions.

“So, that happened,” Sin said dryly.

Tsuna exhaled and nodded. “Ought to be an interesting dungeon. I will be over as soon as Nanako is on her way in the morning. We can send off the clones, eat, get prepped, and head in.”

####  18 May 2011, Wednesday

Somewhere during prep there was a rank up message, but Tsuna paid it little attention. He was much too busy preparing bentos and other things to fuel their journey. They were just about ready to enter the TV when Tsuna felt something impinge on his awareness and looked to the side.

The fox was sitting there quietly.

“You coming along?” he asked.

The fox yipped and stood up.

“All right, then. Let’s go.”

After picking themselves up Tsuna noticed Teddie standing there, facing away from them, with his hands behind his back, though his arms were so short he was unable to clasp his hands together. As a result, the bear looked more like someone bracing an aching back.

“Hello, Teddie,” he said. “Has someone been thrown in?”

“Oh… Yep. I think someone’s here.”

Tsuna cocked at brow at the dull tone. “You think?”

“I can smell something, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”

‘Ah,’ he thought, ‘he’s embarrassed.’

“Maybe if I knew more about him?” Teddie said quietly, almost sotto voce.

“Easily flustered, loud, prone to violence, has a complex,” Mukuro listed off, “wanders off from time to time, sometimes for several days, then returns to his mother…”

Teddie’s arms dropped and he inhaled deeply. “Hrm. Oh, I think I found something! It feels like the person who got thrown in! Follow me!” He skittered off.

Shortly thereafter they were at a bathhouse, and Tsuna finally got a good look at the area where Shadow Kanji had been. It was a shower and locker area, and the air was saturated and steamy.

“C’mere, pussycat,” came Tatsumi’s voice. “Oh… Such well defined pecs… There’s no need to be scared… Now, just relax…”

Teddie was far too innocent to understand the implications of what he was hearing, or even the location. And for a bathhouse, there was precious little in the way of bathing pools, and far too many sets of stepped seating, such as in a sauna.

They found Shadow Kanji on Floor 3. He was facing away, clothed only in a fundoshi.

Teddie flailed his arms on seeing the Shadow and made sure to stay at the back of the group.

“Oooooh, my my!” Shadow Kanji suddenly said. “Thank you for your undivided attention! At last, I’ve penetrated the facility! These images are coming to you live from inside this steamy paradise! But I’ve yet to have any charming encounters. Could this hot fog be the cause? It’s like steam rising from sweat! Mmm, my body’s tingling with excitement!”

A second later an overlay popped up in bright colours, with pink hearts and red roses to accompany the words:

_Men Only!! Tatsumi Kanji in Rosy Steam Paradise_

“That elusive thing I truly yearn for… Will I finally find it here?” Shadow Kanji giggled like a school girl, which was mildly disturbing. “Well, then, onward and deeper to reach further realms of romance! Let’s get going, damn it!”

Shadow Kanji vanished.

“That was his other self,” Teddie helpfully informed them in his role of Captain Obvious. “It’s trying to reveal his hidden feelings. It seems much worse than that time with the girl’s Shadow. At this rate, it might end up _bear_ naked.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “Are we good to keep going, or…?”

“Health-wise, yes,” Sin said, “but I’m lagging a bit on SP. The Shadows here are a definite step up from the castle.”

“What about the fox?” Ken asked. “What do those leaves it sells actually do besides cure one old man’s aches?”

A look went around, then Ken huffed and took one from the handful Tsuna had already received and pressed it to his chest. “Huh,” he said a second later. “Seems to help with SP.”

“All right,” he said, “let’s take a short break to have something to eat and replenish what we can, then press on. If we get too low, or the Shadows take a sharp jump in difficulty in the next couple of floors, we can teleport out, buy more leaves… Either way, we should drop a chunk of change on more on the way out. The food we brought is very helpful, but I’d rather not risk someone getting overstuffed.”

Everyone nodded and took a seat. Food was broken out so they could refresh themselves, though their enjoyment was partly muted due to the extreme mugginess of the bathhouse setting. They continued on afterward and found a mid-boss on Floor 7, a cheerful chap going by the moniker Daring Gigas.

He was nasty, because while he only used physical attacks, he took the time to triple buff himself prior to lashing out, which meant those attacks packed a serious wallop. The moment the buffs wore off Gigas would repeat his triple whammy before going back to attacking.

Thankfully, Tsuna had a Persona which resisted physical, they were well stocked on muffins and onigiri, and all of them were stubborn fuckers who refused to lose a fight. Besides, Tsuna’s intuition hadn't been fussed over the idea of them taking the thing on.

The upside to being stuck, literally, in turn-based combat was that they could debate options for as long as necessary between turns, including impromptu games of jan-ken to decide an issue.

Daring Gigas finally went down and left behind the helpfully labeled Bathhouse Key. What it was useful for they would have to wait to find out. The Shadows were definitely getting stronger, and even with his cooking to back them up, that same food did nothing for their increasing weariness. The heat was really draining, and it only got worse the longer they were there.

He cast his eyes over his family members and nodded. “Yeah, we’re calling it a day. We have a time cushion, so…”

Traesto was employed to teleport them back to the entrance, and Teddie skittered off in the lead to get them back to the studio.

Tsuna was tired enough that he wanted, badly, to giggle at the silly sounds the bear’s feet made, but managed to contain himself.

“We’ll be back tomorrow, most likely. If not then, the day after,” he told the bear.

Teddie looked happy and sad. “You better!”

Before they exited Tsuna exchanged a bunch of currency for more of those SP-restoring leaves. The price was heinous, but he was hilariously rich, so it didn’t much matter in the end. And they could always steal more from the scumbags roaming the planet, or have a few coincidentally lucky runs at various casinos and walk away with boatloads of cash.

It was two o’clock by the time they were back in the normal world, and the times were dutifully marked down with the others. He realized they probably should have gone in on the day before they expected the fog, if only to see if there was any form of time perception fuckery going on.

A check of the latest weather report showed they were good for the next week, so they flopped into various seats to relax for a bit. Not much later the clones entered the house, reported that nothing unusual had happened, and vanished.

Once he stopped feeling so dragged out Tsuna got up and headed into the kitchen to cook a proper meal for his beloved family.

Sin showed up a minute later to assist, as well as say, “Any reason we can’t prepare a ton of food and put it all under stasis charms?”

Tsuna’s hands paused, then he huffed. “We’re idiots, aren’t we. We keep forgetting some of the more interesting applications of magic.”

“This is a rather different situation,” Sin pointed out. “We don’t normally have to repeatedly go into combat, and certainly not under such restrictions. You know damn well if we were operating in there with our normal abilities we’d have cleared that castle in no time flat. The bathhouse, too.”

“Yeah, well, I’m starting to suspect who the Great Shuffler might be,” he grumbled.

Sin’s knife paused, then resumed motion. “I’m almost afraid to ask who.”

“Kami knows I could be wrong, but I suspect it’s a version of Byakuran who succeeded in using the Tri-ni-set to remake his world, then got bored as fuck when it came to actually ruling, and started meddling in other timelines because he basically made himself into a god. I mean, think about it.

“Sure, we’re doing good things, offing defects, an additional complication which not so coincidentally gave us a set of non-flame-based powers and was resolved in a way I’m sure would be beyond any normal magical because of their ingrained mindset, and in all of that, in the infinite variety of potential dimensions, where is there a tipping point?

“I think, if it is him, he just likes fucking with us. We’re like his favorite TV show or something. He’s sitting there watching his version of a window, devouring an endless supply of marshmallows, while his minions do all the work of governing his world. Most people never think far enough ahead to realize that being in charge of something that big means a fuckton of responsibility, and while Byakuran is brilliant, he’s also a sugar-addicted nut with the attention span of a gnat at times.”

“I’m really kind of hoping you’re wrong.”

Tsuna shrugged.

On his way home he detoured to the shrine to see if the fox had anything new, which it did.

_I want to clear my mind of snacks. I want to hate them._

As he was passing back through the shopping district a woman who was clearly in a mood snapped, “Don’t bother me,” at him as he was walking by.

“I’m channeling my mental energy in order to control my urges. I mustn’t want snacks… They’ll just make me faaaat… Shiroku Store is my enemy… Remember all that dieting and exercise… Do you wanna have to do all that again? Must shun the snacks…”

Then she threw up her hands with a frustrated groan. “Snacks… I want to eat snacks! I wonder if there’re any bad-tasting snacks. …Actually, it doesn’t have to be bad. Maybe if it were just odd-tasting, I would stop thinking about them…? I want to distance myself from those Shiroku snacks.”

She sighed and meandered off, leaving Tsuna to wonder what would constitute an odd-tasting snack.

At home he saw that Dojima was nowhere to be seen, which was both pleasing and annoying, and he dropped his things off in his room before coming back down to start dinner. Nanako appeared out of nowhere to help, her earnest little face paying close attention to what he was teaching her, and they settled in to eat in front of the TV.

Nanako started getting fidgety and shooting him glances, and finally said, “Oh, um… Onii-san…”

“What is it?” he asked gently.

“Okay! Um, well… Are you an only child?”

Tsuna nodded. He didn’t think he could count half-siblings he would never have known about under normal circumstances and had never met, and nearly every life he had always been an only child, anyway.

“So you’re just like me. Oh, but I have you now, so…” Nanako smiled cheerfully at the idea. “A while ago, Dad told me … that our family won’t get bigger… But now I have a big brother!” She beamed, and somehow that counted as another rank for the Justice Arcana.

“Let’s talk, onii-san! Um… I wanna hear about your school!”

His school?

####  19 May 2011, Thursday

Before the clones were sent off to attend school in their places, he requested they ask around about odd-tasting snacks.

They had breakfast, checked their gear, tossed a bunch of food into storage that was under stasis spells, and headed into the TV.

Teddie skittered on ahead, leading the way to the Steamy Bathhouse, and after a quick discussion on tactics, decided to resume where they’d left off. There were more floors to Tatsumi’s “reality” and they were alerted by Teddie that Shadow Kanji was around when they hit Floor 11.

“Status check?” he said.

Everyone responded with various versions of assent to proceed, but he had another issue, one they should have already discussed. “Do we let his Shadow progress to the boss stage, or…?”

Mukuro wrinkled his nose. “This is a game setting. I have every expectation that we’ll be prevented from removing the kid from this place until and unless his Shadow is given a beat down.”

Ken nodded. “I don’t think it matters on the bit where you accept your hidden side, because it didn’t matter with the inn girl, but avoiding the big battle? I don’t think the Great Shuffler would allow that.”

“And if you’re worried about his mental state, well…” Hayato trailed off.

“I can play therapist,” he said. “Considering what we’ve been hearing in here, I daresay the kid needs one, or at least an unbiased and nonjudgmental ear. We don’t know him from Adam, though. Maybe…”

“Once we get him out of here, we rifle through his brain while we’re making his memories of this place all fuzzy,” Daemon said, “and figure out a way you could reasonably start talking to him.”

“Yeah, that. Because I’m hearing a ton of defensive behavior, so there’s clearly something he’s wrestling with that’s fucking up his head. All right, then. We let it play out, pound the Shadow into the ground, then bail like last time.”

“This time, maybe slide him into his own room, rather than the shrine?” Chikusa suggested. “He’s been known to disappear for days at a time, so it wouldn’t seem too odd to his mother. Make him think he was off as usual? No one needs to know he was kidnapped.”

Tsuna nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. We can always do some of the work in the studio, though it’d probably be better to do it at our house, then shift him into place at the appropriate time. We good to go?”

Everyone nodded, so he pushed open the huge set of double doors blocking the way. Tatsumi Kanji was standing in the revealed room (and which any gamer would immediately recognize as a boss area), staring at his Shadow.

“I-I…”

“Oh, come now,” Shadow Kanji said, “enough with the charade. Isn’t it awful to deceive people? To deceive yourself? What’s so bad about doing what I want to do?”

“That has nothin’ to do with it…” Tatsumi said.

“I’m what you really want, aren’t I?”

“Hell no!” Tatsumi shot back.

If only they dared to prod the “mind” of a Shadow like this. Having to do rounds of guess which skills to use or avoid every time they encountered something new was a right pain. This setting didn’t have a skill like Scan.

“Oh, how I hate girls,” Shadow Kanji said in that swishy-voice. “So arrogant and self-centered! They cry if you get angry, they gossip behind your back, they spread nasty lies… They look at me like some … some disgusting _thing_ and say that I’m a weirdo! Laughing at me, all the while!

“ ‘You like to sew? What a queer! Painting is so not you,’ they say. ‘But you’re a guy… You don’t act like a guy… Why aren’t you manly…’ What does it mean to ‘be a guy’? What does it mean to be ‘manly’? Girls are so scary.”

Tatsumi sounded flustered when he said, “I-I ain’t scared of ’em!”

“Men are so much better,” Shadow Kanji crooned. “They’d never say those awful, degrading things. Yes, I vastly prefer men.”

“Hell with that! What makes you think you can say that shit with _my_ face!?”

“Why, you’re me … and I’m you. You do know that, don’t you…?”

“No… Nuh-uh! No way!” Tatsumi slashed his hand through the air. “There’s no way in hell that you’re me!”

Shadow Kanji chuckled darkly. “You’re me, and there’s no denying it!”

The resulting transformation was just… Tsuna blinked as he took in the new form, absently noting that his family had hauled Tatsumi (who had collapsed backward) out of the line of fire. Facing them was a monstrous form, that of a body builder, split down the center in terms of colouration, with one half black and the other white.

Some representation of dichotomy, perhaps?

Rather than a head, the figure had Shadow Kanji’s upper body in that spot, which looked extremely peculiar. Vines wrapped around it’s bulging arms and a garland of red roses wrapped around the “neck” like a scarf. Each hand held the symbol of Mars, like massive weapons.

“I am the Shadow, the True Self. I’m just being true to myself. And that’s why … I’ll get rid of anything in my way!”

Shadow Kanji had two minions with him, one to either side, and they were also bodybuilder sorts that were half-black, half-white.

“This has nothing to do with you guys anymore!” Shadow Kanji said, focusing on Samsara. “Didn’t I just say I’m gonna get rid of you!?”

They had initiative, so Tsuna started off with a physical attack to the minion on the left, which the interface helpfully informed him was called Nice Guy.

Once they got into things, they quickly realized that Nice Guy shrugged off elemental attacks and could buff Shadow Kanji, so he had to go, and Shadow Kanji had a physical attack which could hit everyone at once. Tough Guy just liked to plod his way forward to attempt a physical attack, but frequently tripped and knocked himself out for a round.

Roles were quickly decided without discussion, such as debuffing, attacking, and healing.

Once Nice Guy was down, Tough Guy was eliminated, mostly because he could debuff the team. Then they focused on Shadow Kanji, who helpfully let them know when he was about to switch up his attacks with another swishily-voiced bit of nonsense.

Tsuna heaved a sigh when Shadow Kanji was defeated and reverted back to stare at Tatsumi, just like Shadow Yukiko had done.

“Right, let’s bail,” he said.

They converged, used Traesto, and booked it back to the studio. Teddie was thanked before they exited through the TV stack, and then his Mists got to work fucking with the kid’s brains while everyone else flopped down to rest.

“He mentioned sewing and painting,” Ken said. “There’s a start.”

“I could try to intercept him with some of the crafts I’ve been teaching Nanako-chan how to make,” he said. “Maybe go into their shop for fabrics when I know he’ll be there, so he can conveniently overhear what I need it all for, see how he reacts. Maybe let him see Sin and I having a tender moment?”

Sin nodded. “A minor display of romantic affection would clue him in that there are people around him who share the same orientation, or at least the one he’s confused about. A gentle prod, a little hint or three, maybe ask his advice on something because they deal in textiles…”

“Maybe have a Mist nudge the kid’s mother into getting Tatsumi to be the one to help you?” Hayato suggested.

Mukuro looked away from Tatsumi long enough to say, “I can do that and stay out of sight,” before turning his attention back to helping the twins mess with the kid’s head.

“If I can get him to open up, to know there’s someone he can talk to, even if I can’t answer his questions for him… People are still likely to give him shit about his hobbies, but if he’s confident in what he’s doing, I think he’ll stop reacting so violently.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with kicking in the faces of bullies and bigots,” Sin said happily.

Daemon broke away from the Mist huddle to say, “He usually disappears for three or four days at a time, so we should keep him here unconscious through tomorrow, then sneak him into his bed. We’ve just about got him convinced he was off on one of his usual walkabouts, and that his time inside the TV was just a very weird dream.”

“So it’s possible we could arrange for him to be at the shop on Sunday, when Sin and I go in, Mukuro as hidden backup, to start nudging.”

Daemon nodded.

“Awesome. Yeah, keep the kid an extra day, just to make it more believable.”

Daemon nodded again, then returned to helping his twin and Mukuro.

The clones wandered in about then, and the Hayato version stepped up to be the spokesperson as the others faded out. “The usual drivel, but… Hanamura, Satonaka, and Amagi are in a pother over Tatsumi. The way they were talking they’re aware he was on the Midnight Channel and are worried for him. Amagi talked to the boy’s mother while on a call to them on behalf of the inn, and they’re aware that Tatsumi wanders off every so often. Being teenagers and excitable means a lot of nervous energy. And finally, on a side note, Satonaka gave us these after it got out we were inquiring about snacks that don’t taste like snacks.”

Clone-Hayato handed over three sticks of foil-wrapped gum. “She calls them Meat Gum. We thought they might work for the ema the fox gave you to handle.”

Tsuna lifted them to his nose for a cautious sniff and immediately wrinkled his nose. “Girl has weird tastes. She say where she gets them?”

“She found them in Okina City, a little hole-in-the-wall place. Didn’t remember the name.”

“All right. Awesome.”

“One final thing, not that you’ll care. You four tied for first place,” said Clone-Hayato with a nod, then dispersed.

“Eh, I should have tagged that woman. Hopefully she’ll be in the shopping district again, testing her willpower against her weakness for snacks from Shiroku.”

“What do you think the Hermit link even does aside from bonuses to fusion?” Sin asked.

Tsuna shrugged and got up. “Maybe a discount on his mysterious leaves? If I have time I’ll be back before I need to get dinner started. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’d prefer to send in clones for one more day while Tatsumi-san is out cold here.”

“Preferably every day that doesn’t involve tests or forced activities,” Hayato muttered.

“I hear you,” he tossed over his shoulder as he departed.

He let his intuition nudge him along and found Snack-Lady quickly enough. She had a keen nose, because when he got near enough she honed in on him.

“What’s this smell!?” she cried. “It smells juicy, raw, and yet sweet… Is this the rumored Meat Gum?” She swallowed hard and gave him a pleading look. “Hey, can I have a piece? I want to try it.”

He offered one up and watched as she practically snatched it out of his hand, ripped off the foil, and shoved it into her mouth. After a very strange expression indeed and some chewing, she said, “Wh-what is this!? It’s like chewy meat! This is also considered a snack!? The world of snacks in indeed vast and infinite. Well, that was certainly different and odd. When I think ‘snack’ I’ll definitely recall this taste now. Thank you. Now I won’t linger in front of the Shiroku Store any more.”

She started to walk away, but paused. “Oh, yes. I need to visit the shrine. I made a wish to hate snacks there. I’ll use my snack money as an offering!”

Tsuna shadowed her to the shrine, but waited outside until she departed, then entered himself. A quick conversation with the fox and an upgrade to rank three of the Hermit link, and he was on his way again.

####  20 May 2011, Friday

Tsuna wanted to go back into the TV World to use the bathhouse for training purposes, but he preferred to wait until Tatsumi-san had been safely returned to his mother. Instead, they spent the day talking, playing various games, and basically enjoying time with each other.

That afternoon a clone reported that Chie had asked him to train with her, so he headed out to that little park area by the river to meet up with her, the clone having used the excuse that he wanted to drop his things off first.

“All right!” Chie said. “Today’s the day!”

As he wondered for what, he spotted his cousin diverting from the path and coming toward them. Once she got close enough she said, “Huh?”

“Oh, Nanako-chan!” Chie greeted.

“What are you doing?” Nanako asked, still looking confused.

“Hm? Training, of course!”

The confusion remained given the sudden tilt of Nanako’s head. “Training… Who are you fighting with?”

Chie hummed. “Myself… I guess?” She laughed a bit uncomfortably. “Just kidding!”

“Wow, cool!” The tilt went away, to be replaced with wide eyes.

“Y-you think?” Chie laughed again, with a little confidence.

Nanako’s eyes went very wide. “Oh, a grasshopper!”

Chie started to panic, which was semi-hilarious. “Huh!? N-no way! Wh-where!?”

Nanako looked up at her and said matter-of-factly, “It just landed on your back.”

Chie flipped out and started flailing. “Ahhh! Get it off! Get it off me!”

His cousin shared a look with him, then calmly reached out to remove the poor creature and set it in the grass. “…You don’t like grasshoppers?”

Chie shuddered and shook her head. “I’m no good with anything with thin, jointed legs! Or anything creepy and squirmy! Ack, now I can’t get ’em out of my mind! I can’t stand those things!”

“But they’re cute…”

Chie stared at his cousin, then smiled. “…You’re like Yukiko. Oh, see, ’cause Yukiko’s fine around bugs. But me, I totally lose it… Kinda funny, huh?”

“Everyone has fears,” he said. “Everyone.”

“I-I guess so…” Chie didn’t seem very certain of that.

“A lot of kids in my class don’t like bugs. It’s not just you. Don’t worry!” Nanako said supportively.

Chie did a double-take. “Nanako-chan… Ooh, you don’t know how happy that makes me. Thanks! C’mon, you wanna train, too?”

Nanako beamed. “Okay!”

“Let’s start with form. I’ll teach you a kata…”

Tsuna drifted back and sat down on the nearby bench, content to supervise and, when it started to get toward five o’clock, he broke up their fun so he could get his cousin home safely. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when all that somehow netted him another rank for the Chariot Arcana.

Later that night, after Nanako was safely tucked away in bed and a Bounding Box had been temporarily anchored around his bedroom (mostly so that Dojima wouldn’t check in on him), he stepped over to the Rokudo house.

They all became little ninjas (minus the sneaking around in the shadows part) and stepped over to the kid’s bedroom. Tsuna tossed up a temporary Bounding Box, Daemon, Ken, and Chikusa got Tatsumi dressed for bed and settled on his futon, and then they all stepped back out.


	7. λ21: 07: 21-31 May 2011

## λ21  
07: 21-31 May 2011

####  21 May 2011, Saturday

“At least we have tomorrow off from school,” Hayato muttered sulkily. “We really need to have someone get the schedule so we can plan stuff. We talked about it that one time, but…”

He was about to answer when the Gossip Duo started to overtake them.

“Have you been watching that mail-order show that’s on TV every Sunday? I never miss it!”

“You really love those kinds of shows, don’t you, Michi-chan. I remember that you said you bought a really flashy skimpy bathing suit last time. When are you ever going to wear it?”

“Oh, I’ll wear it … when the time is right.”

And then they were too far ahead to be heard, which was just as well.

“Eh, what the hell,” he said. “Mukuro…”

“Hm?”

“I wouldn’t say no to you swapping out with a clone and doing some snooping in the faculty office.”

Mukuro cackled quietly and nodded. “Of course, darling.”

“Hopefully by lunch, end of the day at worst, you’ll have interesting things to share,” he said, snickering mentally over his Mist’s happiness.

He way waylaid at the gates by Yukiko, who had a strange look on her face. “Um… Dojima-san…”

He tilted his head curiously.

“You can cook, right…?”

He nodded.

“Could I ask for your help with something?”

“Uh… Sure. What do you need?”

“Will you come with me to Junes?”

He shot a look at his family, then trundled off with her. Once at Junes she led them to the grocery section, then seemed to become confused.

“Why are there so many different types of food? Even eggs come in so many varieties.”

“Are you going to be helping out in the kitchen at the inn?” he asked.

Yukiko blushed and shook her head. “No! I’d never dream of it! I don’t think my food’s nearly good enough to serve to the guests. I was just thinking of practicing my cooking.” She glanced back at the displays of various ingredients and looked uncertain.

“Did you have a particular dish in mind?”

“Um… Well…”

“With or without meat?” he asked, trying to narrow something down that would be simple enough for a novice cook.

“…With,” she said, looking at him directly again.

“Beef, chicken, pork, venison, fish…?”

She bit her lip. “Beef?”

“How about hayashi rice?”

“Hm.” She nodded after a moment.

“All right. Let’s get what we’ll need, and then I’ll show you how to make it. Deal?”

Yukiko blossomed a slow smile, then nodded sharply. “Okay.”

A bit of shopping later and they were on their way to the Dojima house, as he had serious doubts the inn staff would want them cluttering up their kitchen. Nanako looked up in surprise when he entered the house with a guest, but immediately skittered over when he started unpacking the bags.

Yukiko smiled at the girl. “Would you like to learn, too?”

Nanako beamed. “Onii-san lets me watch and help with dinner every night!”

“Nanako-chan’s been a great help, though she’s not allowed to handle knives yet,” he said as he pulled out supplies. “All right, pay attention. First, let’s talk about the type of pot.”

Yukiko looked confused almost immediately.

“Different materials heat differently, and some dishes—in various cultures—go from stove top to oven. In a case like that you’d likely be using something made out of cast iron. For hayashi rice, it’s not as important. We’ll be using this pot, because it’s big enough to handle all of it, and I can use it to brown the beef.”

He washed his hands, then carefully walked them through the steps of how to prepare the beef—having made sure to get enough to feed at least four people—and brown it, making sure they understood that it was a mistake to crowd too much in at one time.

While Nanako was keeping an eye on the beef and carefully flipping cubes with a set of tongs, Tsuna moved on to showing Yukiko tips to handling onions and the fastest way to slice (or dice) them.

Once the beef was done he scraped all the onion into the pot, added garlic and water, then covered the pot. “We let this steam for ten minutes on low, so the onions will tenderize. While we’re waiting on that, do you want to practice with an onion?”

“Um… Okay,” Yukiko said, then washed her hands and moved into position.

“Go slow at first,” he said. “Speed comes with experience and confidence.” He supervised until it was time for the next step. “Now we’re going to caramelize the onions, which helps bring out the sweetness of them,” he said, removing the lid and upping the heat to medium. “I need one of you to give this a stir every couple of minutes while I get the rest measured out.”

“Caramelize?”

“They’ll turn brownish. We don’t want anything to burn at the bottom, so we stir it up every so often, so all the onion gets a chance.”

Yukiko nodded and took the tongs from where Nanako had placed them, ready to act.

“When cooking, good recipes will use weight as a measurement. That way there’s no question of how much of something you’re using. That means you need a kitchen scale. So…” He slid that over and placed a small glass bowl on it, then hit the zeroing button. “You zero the scale with the empty container on it, so it knows to ignore that weight.”

Yukiko nodded again, then swished the pot mixture around.

Tsuna measured out porcini powder, tomato paste, ketchup, chunou sauce, and honey into individual bowls, then the red wine in a measuring cup.

A glance into the pot had him saying, “That looks fine for now. We’ll add all of these, along with the beef stock, and bring it a simmer.” It was easier to show them what simmering looked like than to try to explain it in words.

“Now we cover it and let it simmer for two hours.” He laughed lightly when they looked surprised. “It takes that long for two reasons. One, a long simmer makes the beef very tender, almost falling apart sometimes. It also gives all those flavors a chance to mix and harmonize, make all of it work together. While we’re waiting you can practice more on onions. And don’t worry, I’ll put all that in the refrigerator and use it for something else. It will not go to waste.”

Yukiko nodded again and got back to work on her technique.

“If you get bored, you can watch TV, and I’ll let you know when the next step starts,” he said to Nanako, who nodded and scurried off.

A short time later he said, “You seem to be getting the hang of that. A tip for when you’ve been dealing with something like onions. Your hands are going to smell. A good way to help make that go away is to use a citrus-based soap.” He held up to soap dispenser to show her, then scraped all her efforts into a container and sealed it, labeled it with a bit of tape, then stored it away for another time.

While they were waiting he made small talk with her about what sorts of dishes they offered at the Amagi Inn, then said, “Some things you can prepare ahead of time, then freeze. Freezing can have the effect of both further tenderizing any meat, as well as helping the harmonization of the various flavors. Beef stew is excellent for that, and also this. You just measure it per portion on a scale, put each one into a freezer-safe, sealable container, label them, and chuck them in.

“I know people who spend a good chunk of each Sunday making up meals for the week, freezing most of it in portions, so they can just defrost what they need, make the rice, and put it all together, rather than worrying about cooking every day.”

Yukiko looked thoughtful at that, which made him wonder if she was thinking about her desire to ditch Inaba, and all of this was about her learning how to cook her own meals rather than rely on instant ramen or eating out, plus saving money in the bargain.

“If you want, I can print out a recipe for this and all the instructions. Give it to you at school.”

“I’d like that,” she said softly.

“Are you at all interested in foreign cuisine?”

“Nanako-chan, we’re about to start the next step,” he informed his cousin, then smiled then she abandoned the TV to skitter back over. Once Nanako was up on her stool so she could see properly, he showed them how to handle the three types of mushrooms he was using, pausing briefly to put a pan on a free burner and put some butter in to melt. “We’re going to brown these, and that’ll take about ten to fifteen minutes.”

Nanako’s eyes went wide. “So we have to start the rice!”

He nodded at her. “Exactly.”

“I’ll do it!”

He smiled and continued with the mushrooms, then scraped them into the pan. “Medium-high heat, though every stove is a little different. Once these are all nicely browned, we can add them to the pot, mix well, and then serve it over rice.”

“It all seems so simple,” Yukiko said in confusion.

“This isn’t too bad. Some dishes take a lot of skill, or patience. The first time I made croissants was—well, not a disaster, but…”

“How did you even learn?” Yukiko asked.

“My mother was the chef at a restaurant in Namimori, up until she remarried. It was an interesting place. Each week was a different focus, so one week was beef dishes, the next chicken… One week out of each seven week rotation was foreign dishes. So, I had a lot of exposure to cooking, and I was curious. It’s almost always cheaper to buy your ingredients and cook for yourself, and you can tweak recipes to suit your personal tastes.”

Shortly thereafter he dished up a small sample for Yukiko to taste, mostly because if she hated it…

Yukiko’s eyes went wide on tasting it. “This is very good!”

“Do you have time to eat a proper portion, or should I pack one up to take home with you? You can heat the beef part up a little in a saucepan before serving it over the rice if so.”

She glanced at the clock and winced. “Um…”

“I’ll pack it up. It’s no problem. Just bring the container on Monday.” He set to doing that and she was shortly on her way, so he served up portions for him and Nanako, since it was right around that time anyway.

“This is great, onii-san!” Nanako said happily.

“I’m glad you like it,” he said, making a tic mark on his mental checklist of Social Links.

####  22 May 2011, Sunday

Tsuna and Nanako went shopping after breakfast—Sin slid into the group smoothly somewhere along the way—and, after a brief delay to check out that shopping show the Gossip Girls had mentioned (he decided to purchase the medical kit and medicines combo), the three of them headed to the shopping district to go check out fabrics for doll-making purposes.

Mukuro had probably been skulking in the shadows since much earlier, ready to ensnare the kid when he woke up, to ensure he didn’t go wandering and would be there to get drawn into conversation.

The kid’s mother was there as always, so he bowed to her, then asked Nanako if there were any fabrics she liked. She looked like she could barely contain herself and pointed at approximately half the store’s stock.

Tsuna laughed and shook his head.

“What will you be using the fabric for?” Tatsumi-san asked.

“Dolls,” he said. “I’ve been teaching my little cousin here how to craft her own dolls. We’re almost out of fabric, though. And stuffing, now that I think about it.”

Tatsumi-san’s brows rose, then she looked over her shoulder and called out, “Kanji-kun! Come here, please!”

Kanji skulked into the room looking ready to rumble.

“You have some skill with making dolls. What would you recommend for fabrics?”

Kanji shot a look at Tsuna and Sin, just waiting for the censure to hit, then stumped over to a display and started pointing at various fabrics displayed there.

Tsuna moved closer to examine them, then asked, “Is there any particular kind of thread that should be used, or is anything good?”

Kanji gave him a sidelong look, his bearing stiff and tense. “Cotton’s fine. Or a cotton/polyester blend.”

“All right. Um… Are there any scraps I could test real quick? I would like to see how they respond to fabric glue. My cousin isn’t allowed to use something like a needle unsupervised yet.”

Kanji glanced at his mother, who nodded, so he stumped off again and came back with a handful of colourful fabric scraps.

Tsuna bowed and looked to Tatsumi-san for permission, then knelt at a small table and got out his glue and a set of fabric scissors. Sin knelt next to him as Nanako crowded his other side. He made quick cuts of each sample, then set about applying the glue.

To Nanako he said, “If they don’t respond well, you can still do the cutting, and when I can help, I’ll handle the sewing, all right?”

Nanako beamed at him and nodded. “Thanks, onii-san!”

He tweaked one of her pigtails and checked the glue. It generally set quickly, but the time differed depending on the composition of the fabric. “Hm, this looks like it’ll be fine. Okay, go ahead and pick out—hm.”

“Six?” Sin said.

He nodded. “That sounds like a good start. Six patterned ones, Nanako-chan, for the clothing, and a plain one for the skin.” To Kanji he said, “Do you have thread here, or…?”

The look Kanji gave him was mildly bewildered. “Yeah. Uh, over there,” he said, indicating a display on the other side of the shop.

Tsuna smiled and got to his feet, then trundled over to check the offerings. Sin accompanied him and there were a few instances of less than platonic shoulder bumping as he selected a dozen spools of thread to purchase, then checked on his cousin.

She was beside herself trying to narrow down six choices from the available options, but he waited patiently, instead turning to Kanji and saying, “You have experience with this, right? I’ve only just started to teach my cousin and I used the first stuffing material I came across. I’m already not sure it’d be safe to wash any dolls in the machine because of the glue, but now I’m wondering if I should be more worried about the stuffing.”

Kanji stared again, confusion lurking in his eyes. “H-how old is…”

“Nanako-chan? She’s six—no, seven.”

“Uh, well… Pellets are out. You’re not supposed to use those for children’s toys.”

Tsuna nodded. “Choking hazard?”

“R-right. There’s, uh, polyester and cotton stuffing. But… Cotton is best when it’s pre-shrunk. There’s also bamboo and corn fiber stuffing. All those can be machine washed. Wool and wood wool can’t.”

Tsuna hummed.

“And kid stuff… If you’re stitching it, you gotta make it tight and strong, so nothin’ escapes.”

He nodded. “Okay. Do you sell the bamboo stuffing here?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s over this way.”

“Awesome,” he said, and followed along so he could grab a few bags. He’d wait until he saw how much he would need on average per doll before buying more. By the time he had those, Nanako had finally, agonizingly, picked out her six patterns and ran over to let him know.

He smiled indulgently at her and finished up their transactions. Before he turned to go he said, “If I need any other advice, is it all right if I come ask you?”

Kanji nodded haltingly.

“Awesome,” he said, smiling. He bowed to Kanji and his mother, then took Nanako’s hand and departed with Sin.

After dropping Nanako off so she could get started on planning new dolls, he stepped over to the Rokudo house with Sin to spend time with his family.

“I think that went well,” Xeul opined. “The kid was confused, but I never got the impression that he felt as if you were stealth mocking him. With any luck, maybe a few more visits for materials and the odd question…”

Tsuna nodded. “I do not like the idea of playing therapist, but… That poor kid. Of course, Detective-Girl—what’s her name again? Shirogane?—will probably confuse him all over again if she keeps pestering him. Tatsumi isn’t the brightest bulb.”

“If he’s any good at his crafting, he’d probably go quite far,” Chikusa said. “Skilled craftspeople are always a treasure. Hm, I wonder if he’s any good with wood.”

“Should we have a go at Shirogane?” Hayato asked. “If she’s bugging Tatsumi, that says she twigged to the pattern of TV appearances, and she’s worried he’ll be next. She presumably has no more idea he actually was kidnapped than the police and average citizens, so…”

“And she has a chip on her shoulder,” Daemon said, “a quite large one. Odds she’ll arrange to get herself on TV, to see if she’s targeted? Also, is it just me, or does anyone else feel like there’s a fog in their head, hiding stuff that’s right in front of us.”

Tsuna raised a hand briefly. “I know damn well there’s something staring us right in the face, and I can’t put a finger on it. None of us are stupid, or naïve, or… We’re crafty and cunning and see things other people don’t, if only by sheer dint of experience.”

“The Great Shuffler, or…?” Sin said.

Tsuna shrugged. “No clue. Obviously very powerful, because we’ve been around the block too many times to be blinded by some Mist trolling us for kicks. We’ve already proven to have surpassed Checkers, so it’s not something like him.”

“It could be the Great Shuffler,” Ken said with a frown, “if only to ensure this whole scenario plays out according to whatever rules were established. And that at some point, we’ll have passed the tipping point and be … allowed … to finally see the truth.”

Tsuna furrowed his brow. “Those dreams… They kept mentioning the truth. And the Social Links being established, talking about me getting closer to the truth.”

Mukuro pursed his lips. “That almost sounds like we need distributed or parallel processing in order to have the computing power to solve a problem.”

“Like how a god gains power from the belief of its worshipers?” Ken said.

Now that was a weird thought.

####  23 May 2011, Monday

_We want Koro to come back! Please, Kami. — Saito._

Tsuna’s brow went up. Was this Saito person talking about a dog or something? He had noticed what appeared to be a stray recently. He wandered away from the shrine and picked up some meat skewers just in case, then went hunting, Mukuro, Sin, and Hayato splitting away so they could cover more territory.

A short time later he saw: Found a dog over at the flood plain. He’s looking defensive and emaciated. Dojima side of that warning sign.

Tsuna promptly found a convenient spot to step _Between_ from, to appear in the branches of a thickly-leaved tree at the flood plain, then scrambled down and headed for the indicated spot. Sure enough, there was a dog there, though it had moved to use the sign as cover from any threats.

He moved closer, but stopped when the dog tensed, and then crouched down, a meat skewer in one hand. A wave of Sky Flames went out, directed at the pooch, and he was gratified to see it relax and start sniffing in his direction.

Tsuna waved the skewer a few times, slowly, then slid the chunks of meat off onto the pavement and moved back a little. The dog took a hesitant step forward, revealing itself more, and Tsuna could see that the poor beast looked like it could definitely use food and some love.

A part of him wanted to leave it at that for the moment and just walk away. It was only the fact that someone had left their wish at a shrine that made him less inclined to think the dog had been abused. Even so, it was fairly odd that a pet couldn’t find its way home; dogs had an excellent sense of smell, after all, and were pack animals.

His steady application of flames coaxed the dog closer and closer, until it finally wolfed down the offering and looked to him for more. Tsuna produced another skewer and slid the meat off it, and backed off a bit again.

Ten minutes later he was able to give the dog a comforting pat and feed it directly.

Found the owner, flashed up. Giving the kid the idea to check where you are.

“You’re going to be okay,” he said gently. “Just a little longer, Koro.”

The dog reacted as if it recognized that name and wagged its tail.

Five minutes after that a young boy skittered onto the scene, stopped dead when he saw the dog, then scurried over. “Koro!”

The dog immediately abandoned Tsuna and gamboled over to the kid, so Tsuna considered it a done deal and stood up, then walked away to report it to the fox, which bumped him up a rank for the Hermit Social Link.

His intuition was poking at him again, so he went back to the shopping district and entered the Velvet Room; something was off, though. Margaret was alone.

“Oh…” she said. “Excuse me. Do you have any business here? Mmm… As you can see, my master is currently away. If your errand isn’t urgent, I regret to ask that you come back la—no, that won’t do. This room is bound tightly to your fate. Nothing here happens without a reason. There must be meaning in our meeting alone. Welcome to the Velvet Room. I am Margaret.”

‘As if you haven’t told me that numerous times already,’ he thought, feeling annoyed at the repetition.

“I am the ones who rules over power, invited here after my predecessor’s sudden disappearance. You may be the first person who has ever been welcomed here by someone other than my master. The Velvet Room is inseparable from the heart of its invited guest.”

Which made him realize that a limousine was an interesting counterpart to his own life, how he was always traveling from one dimension to the next, his … journey.

“The shape of the room and its residents are selected by my master, based on the number of guests and their destiny. Shall we chat? I feel that is what I am called to do.” Margaret smiled faintly and her overall expression softened from the usual cold façade she expressed.

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Empress Arcana.

“It seems you have several ‘Social Links’ already,” she said. “Recurring meetings, recurring words… By deepening your understanding of one another, your bonds strengthen. But sometimes the heart is shaken more by a single action than a thousand words. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he said knowingly.

“…Today’s meeting might be classified as that single action. I’ve decided. The strand of fate you follow… Entangle me within it as well. Perhaps a new bond will be spun. There is something I have wanted to know, and you are the first guest I welcomed here… In light of today’s meeting with my master absent…” She hummed. “I believe we are both special to one another.” A brief smile broke out.

“I want to know more about you. First, I think I shall have you show me your rare Persona ability. Let me see… Show me an Ippon-Datara that knows Sukukaja. The heart is shaken more by a single action than by a thousand words. Have you already forgotten? I have something to look forward to. I wish you well.”

The next thing he knew he was back in the shopping district, just outside the door to the Velvet Room. ‘I swear these … people … are just too weird. But I can’t expect an entity alien to me, or uncomprehending of humans, to make much sense.’

After a quick review of his memory to check his stock of Personas, he stepped back in—noting that Igor was back—and set about crafting the fusion Margaret had requested, then showed her the card.

“An Ippon-Datara with Sukukaja… You have successfully completed the quest. Well-rounded, flexible, muscular… Splendid. You’ve done good work here. You are indeed the one with infinite potential.” Margaret chuckled. “Now I’m even more curious about you.”

He absently noted that Empress ranked up even as she continued, “Well, then, for my next request: Bring me a Matador with the Mahama skill. I know that if anyone can do this for me, it’s you. I eagerly await your return.”

Tsuna nodded and exited, having had enough of weirdness for the moment.

The container he had loaned to Yukiko was tossed in the sink the be cleaned with the dinner dishes—though he expected she had already done so, as it would have been impolite otherwise—and spared some time to consider other recipes she might be able to manage with her lack of skill. The one he had written up for her had gone a bit overboard on explaining, but better that than inadvertently skipping something important.

Once Nanako had been fed and was off doing her own thing, he went upstairs to get in some practice with sewing, just to keep ahead of her, and to have relevant questions to ask Tatsumi. Sin had far more experience, having personally made a number of those costumes he used to wear, but Tsuna was the one with Social Links, so he needed to come up with ways to connect with these people and get them to open up to him.

Later that day, over a dinner of oyakodon, Dojima (actually present for once) said, “Oh, that reminds me. Remember that Tatsumi Kanji guy I told you about? You know, the one who went nuts on that news special. His family’s shop called in to report him missing, but he’s turned up again. Apparently he does that every so often. I thought I’d let you know, since you go to the same school.”

Tsuna nodded, mystified by Dojima’s reasoning. Under normal circumstances, why would he care about a younger student he had never even met, only seen on the news? “That’s good to know, though it’s a bit strange that he keeps disappearing.”

“Yeah. One other thing… Nanako mentioned you went to their textile shop recently. It’s not the kind of place students normally visit. Just what kind of business did you have there?”

‘Were you incapable of hearing everything your daughter said?’ he wondered. Surely Nanako had mentioned why they went. “I thought you knew,” he said. “I’ve been teaching Nanako-chan how to make dolls. We were just about out of fabric and stuffing. And why order online and have it delivered if I can get it locally?”

Nanako frowned. “…Are you fighting again?”

The subject was dropped and Dojima turned his attention to the TV.

####  24 May 2011, Tuesday

With nothing interesting on the schedule for school, they sent clones instead and spent a good part of the day training in the Steamy Bathhouse. It was a far better idea to use their downtime from the town’s mystery to get ahead, rather than scramble to catch up when the next victim was targeted.

The fox, who mysteriously showed up at the studio, was selling his magic leaves for a lower price, which lent credence to the idea that the Hermit Social Link provided a discount that increased based on his progress with the emas the fox kept pushing him to find solutions for.

On his way back to the Dojima house he noticed Yukiko, who was hovering uncertainly near the Yomenaido Bookstore, so he drifted on over with the ostensible desire to browse the books on offer.

Yukiko followed him in, not saying anything, and did some browsing herself, eventually picking one up. Tsuna grabbed a few things he had not yet encountered and paid for them, then exited. Yukiko followed and smiled at him.

“Thank goodness,” she said. “This was the last one. Sensei recommended this book to me because it has details on a bunch of different job licenses.”

‘Sensei?’ he wondered. “Interested in what it takes for various jobs?” he asked, avoiding the obvious question of whether this was connected to her desire to shake her family’s expectation that she would take over the inn.

“Uh-huh, that’s right. …I want to know what’s out there. I was considering something along the lines of an interior decorator. What do you think?”

“If you have an eye for design or décor… Well, why not?”

She smiled again. “It’s cool, isn’t it…? But it’s hard. It costs money to get a license… And of course I wouldn’t want to… I wish there was some part-time job I could do discreetly.”

He thought back to the Gossip Girls. “I noticed a listing on the Jobs Board in town where they pay for making envelopes. That sounds like something you could do without anyone noticing.”

Her eyes went wide with interest. “Really!? I’ll go check out the board, then.” She waved and hastened off as a rank message flashed in front of him.

Tsuna didn’t see the appeal in her potential career choice, but more power to her if she managed it. Good ones could make a boatload of cash. He _was_ pleased that she was actively trying to change her situation, rather than waiting for a Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet and haul her away to parts unknown. Even without having accepted Shadow Yukiko into herself, her experience inside the TV must have given her the push she needed, from her own soul, not from an external influence.

Dojima dumped ¥30,000 on him that evening as a reward for his killer exam scores. “It’s great to see you’re taking care of your responsibilities, even though you just moved here. I need to act like an uncle every so often and give you some spending money. But don’t spend it all in—nah, you can use it however you like.” Dojima nodded and wandered off to his room.

Tsuna blinked and pocketed the cash, then headed up to his room.

####  25 May 2011, Wednesday

_God, please give me some friends. —Yoshitaka_

Tsuna’s brow went up. He was like, the least experienced person in existence when it came to “making friends”. Or at least, it felt that way at times.

He showed the ema after he stepped away from the shrine area and Mukuro claimed it, looking pleased to have some kind of a job aside from not going on a mass killing spree out of boredom.

They had spent the better part of the day training again and, once done, Tsuna decided to go for a walk.

“I’ll go nose around in the student lists of both schools,” Mukuro said happily. “Shouldn’t take too much to track the kid’s records down and have some idea of how old he is. Our IDs have pictures on them, so I should be able to get that, as well.”

“Awesome. Has anyone seen any Arcobaleno lurking in town lately?”

No one piped up, so maybe they had dodged a bullet there? Probably not. His luck just wasn’t like that.

“Here’s to hoping,” he muttered, and shot a flat raspberry at Sin when his lover scoffed.

####  26 May 2011, Thursday

After another day of training, Tsuna went off to find the kid Mukuro had identified and helpfully tagged. Tsuna found the kid on the flood plain, at the same sign the dog had been at.

“Wh-what? I don’t have any money,” the kid said defensively.

Tsuna’s brow quirked. “I don’t want your money.”

“You’re not here for anything else, then, right? I don’t have any friends. So nobody ever wants to talk to me,” the kid said sadly. “Everyone talks about things I don’t know about. Right now, they’re all collecting stickers. I have a sticker, too, but they all said, ‘Everyone has that one.’ If I had a rare sticker, I bet they’d become my friends.”

Tsuna’s brow quirked again as he remembered the delivery from that online shopping show; included with his order had been a sticker. He got that out and, before he could even show it to the child, the kid reacted.

“Huh? Is that a sticker?”

He handed it over so the kid could have a closer look. “ ‘Granter of your desires’? If this sticker can do that, then I’m sure to make friends! …Can you give me this sticker?”

Tsuna strangled the urge to correct the child’s language mistakes and nodded. “Sure.”

“Yay!” the kid cheered. “Thank you! I’m sure to have lots of friends now!” He ran off happily.

He found a convenient spot so he could step over the Rokudo house and shook his head. “Somehow, I don’t think that sticker is going to work.”

“I have a window on him,” Mukuro said. “Hopefully we’ll see shortly and know if we need to come up with a Plan B.”

He smiled fondly at his Mist and nodded. A short time later, as he was preparing more food to be put under stasis for their training runs, Mukuro piped up again.

“Yeah, no, that sticker didn’t work. They called it a ‘grown-up sticker’ and said it didn’t count.”

“Pfft. I’ll ask Nanako-chan, see if she has any ideas. This reminds me of that Pogs craze a while back. If it’s not one thing, it’s something else. Not like kids in a backwater like Inaba have much to occupy their time with.”

He explained the issue to Nanako during dinner and she nodded sagely, which was hilarious to see from a child her age. After they finished eating she raced off to her room, then returned with one from her collection.

“This one is pretty popular,” she said. “I have an extra, so here you go.”

“Thanks, Nanako-chan,” he said, giving it a look. It had “Tankiriman” on it and a figure of some sort. Maybe it had to do with some children’s show?

She giggled and wandered off again.

####  27 May 2011, Friday

Sticker-Boy was back in the previous spot, mumbling to himself. “Where am I supposed to find a rare kid’s sticker?”

Tsuna trundled over and held out the Tankiriman sticker Nanako had generously given him. “How about this one?”

The kid’s eyes lit up. “A Tankiriman sticker!? Wow, thank you! This is cool looking, so I’m sure they’ll let me play after I show them this! Oh, you can have back the one you gave me before,” he said, and fished it out of his pocket. After the exchange was complete the kid raced off again.

Tsuna kept a window on him so he knew whether or not he could report in to the fox and, a short time later, saw that Sticker-Boy was accepted by the bunch of brats he’d been trying to get an in with. That being so, he stepped over to the shrine.

“Hopefully the boy will make an offering,” he added just prior to leaving. The fox looked pleased either way.

Back at the Rokudo house he flopped onto the couch and sighed. Returns had slowed drastically at the Steamy Bathhouse with regard to training, so he thought they may as well leave off on doing more for the moment and occupy themselves with other activities.

‘Sunday, maybe, I can go see the Tatsumi kid again. Nanako-chan has been making dolls for her friends and she’s running through that stuffing pretty fast, so I could use that as an excuse to go. That and buy more fabric. I’d just have to check my memory to see which ones she wanted but didn’t get because I limited her to six.’

Daemon came over at that point, a mischievous smile on his face, and hauled him up. “We’re going to take a trip.”

“Huh?”

“We’ll have windows open on your uncle and cousin just in case, but Samsara is going on a trip, to get away from here for a couple of hours. We’ll have you back in time to make dinner for Nanako-chan.”

“…Where?” he asked, starting to get interested and even excited.

Daemon shook his head.

The next thing he knew he had been smuggled by his brother into Disney Paris. He just hoped he didn’t get startled.

####  29 May 2011, Sunday

After the usual shopping trip with Nanako and Sin, and his cousin had gone off to do her own thing, he and Sin headed for the shopping district. Mukuro had assured him he would engineer the situation again, at least insofar as the Tatsumi kid being at the shop and available to interact.

On entering the shop they beelined, after a bow to Tatsumi-san, for the fabrics his cousin had been agonizing over. Tsuna took his time, bringing one roll at a time over for Tatsumi-san to measure and cut and, when that was finally done, he headed over to the stuffing area to get more of that bamboo filling.

Unfortunately, he was drawing a blank as to something he could pester the kid about, and decided not to stress over it. Just having shown up again should make another chip in the young man’s defensive exterior.

“If only there was a cinema in town,” Sin said. “You and I could go catch a movie. It’s never quite the same watching one at home. What about that spot overlooking town? Another picnic?”

Tsuna hummed, absently noting that Tatsumi was hovering nearby, just on the other side of a privacy screen. “It’s warm enough, I suppose. I could make up some oyakodon? Gyudon? Or get weird and make something like antipasto salad or…”

Sin shoulder bumped him. “You remember that pasta salad you made that one time?”

“…The one with the bell peppers, cucumbers, the sorta-but-not-really Italian dressing?”

Sin nodded. “So we go to the house, make it up, pack it on ice so it has time to chill, and by the time we got up there it’d be ready to eat. Or, you could make that spinach salad.”

“I don’t think we have any goat cheese,” he said as Tatsumi’s presence shifted closer, as if listening. “But we have everything else for that one, I’m pretty sure. Mm, yeah, we could swing by Junes real quick for the cheese, because I don’t remember seeing a place here in the shopping district. There’s that tofu place, but that won’t work.”

“We can call the others once we’re done here to check if there’s anything else missing.”

“Okay. It’s a date. But, I’ll make enough so that your family can have some for their own lunch. Then you and I can go have a little alone time together.”

Sin chuckled darkly.

“Not that kind of alone time, schatz. I am not an exhibitionist, thank you very much,” he said, frowning playfully at his lover.

“Someday,” Sin teased. “You haven’t lived until you’ve had your fun under a warm sun and a flirty breeze, or the stars.”

Tsuna laughed. “It’s not warm enough for _that_ and you know it. Now come on, let’s get this all paid for. We can call on the way to Junes.”

####  30 May 2011, Monday

Life in Inaba took a sharp turn sideways and at an odd angle not long after the clones had been sent off to attend classes. Xeul suddenly swore, which caused everyone to look over in confusion.

“Reborn is in town.”

“Aw, fuck,” he said. “He’s spying on our class?”

Xeul nodded. “Lal must have finally talked to him. Maybe he was on a job or something and it wasn’t until now that he could find the time to come investigate, but he’s definitely here now.”

“And we all know just how relentless he can be.”

Tsuna huffed. “Right, new plan. We can swap with the clones during break, in one of the restrooms. Sure, we can keep Reborn away from this house, but… It’s probably better to just get it over with. We’ll just have to be students again until he’s gone. Ugh.”

Tsuna caught the barest flash of sunny yellow as they exited the school gates, which was hilarious to him. Reborn was usually much better about staying out of sight when he was on the prowl. Was the man honestly that intrigued (or excited?) that he slipped occasionally? Or was it some kind of twisted test, to see if his lookalike had the skills to notice him lurking?

Sin shoulder-bumped him and chuckled darkly—sinfully, some might say. He lifted his chin—coincidentally in the direction of their stalker—and looked at Tsuna with a smirk.

As planned, Tsuna and Sin went one way, while Hayato and Mukuro went another. In truth, they would simply enter _Between_ and follow along. None of them expected Reborn to flip out and shoot anyone, but it never hurt to have undetectable backup standing by.

They headed to that little park area at the flood plain and settled in to fish. Because, why not? It was better than sitting on the bench and carrying on an inane conversation because nothing of importance could actually be uttered. A basket had mysteriously appeared next to them, to hold any fish they managed to catch, and a small plastic container held bait.

Tsuna had just reeled in a trout and was preparing to dislodge the hook from the thing’s mouth when Reborn chose to seemingly appear out of thin air. Tsuna smoothly continued as if that hadn't just happened and stuffed the fish into their basket, then re-baited his hook.

Reborn huffed almost soundlessly at being ignored, despite the fact that he was standing behind them and people did not usually come with a second set of eyes installed at the back of their heads.

“I wonder if Nanako-chan would like fish tonight,” he mused, “or if I should just let you take them all. Assuming you even manage to catch one.”

Sin snorted softly. “I never fail, tesoro, you know that,” he said in a voice brimming with a confidence bordering on arrogance.

Tsuna glanced over with a smile, then cast his line again. “I do know that, which is why I’m not suggesting a contest. That ego of yours would insist on winning, and I have better things to do with my time than participate in a dick-measuring contest.”

Sin threw his head back and laughed, causing his rod and line to jiggle all over the place.

Another soft huff came from behind them, almost lost in the sound of Sin’s mirth, but Tsuna again ignored it. Reborn hated like poison being ignored, so naturally that was the correct response. Besides, he was not going to cater to the man’s need to be admired-envied-gawked at, or whatever he was after, or leap to answer any questions about the teenager who was a dead ringer for Reborn’s younger self.

“If I do make fish for dinner tonight, I’ll need three, just in case my uncle remembers where he lives and deigns to wander by in time to eat,” he said, the words sullied with an undertone of bitterness.

“Wouldn’t that throw off the schedule you two made?” Sin asked.

“Yeah, it would, and I made such a point of us sitting down together to do the planning, so we could do the shopping to cover what we decided on. I probably shouldn’t mess with that. So, when do you think the stalker guy staring at us from behind is going to say something?”

Sin shrugged. “Maybe he’s just enjoying the view. Which view, however, is the question.”

Well, that did it.

Reborn stalked around so he could see them, a deep scowl on his perfect face. “I am not a stalker.”

Tsuna blinked innocently at the man. “Oh, I see! You suffer from social anxiety and find it difficult to interface with others.” He nodded happily at his diagnosis.

Reborn’s scowl deepened.

“No…? Hm. What could it be, then?” he said, switching his gaze to Sin.

“Maybe he was admiring our fishing technique?” Sin asked with utter seriousness, then jerked his gaze forward and started reeling in his line.

“Oh, that looks like a big one, schatz.” He looked at Reborn and added, “You might want to step back, Ki-san, or you could get slapped in the face with a fish.”

Reborn took a step back, his scowl easing and, instead, one brow going up. “Ki-san?”

“You wear a lot of yellow,” he said matter-of-factly, eying the yellow band on Reborn’s fedora and his pale yellow shirt. “Would you prefer Tanin-san? Are you in Inaba for business, Ki-san?” he asked, smiling serenely.

The resulting twitch was gratifying and amusing.

“Maybe he found a local craftsman to sign up as a supplier,” Sin suggested, still fighting to reel in his catch. “People in Tokyo would probably pay a lot for superior-quality handcrafted goods.”

Tsuna hummed. “Possibly. By the way, schatz, do you think Ki-san looks a little like you?” he asked. “He doesn’t have your, uh, _je ne sais quois_ , but he does rather resemble you in a way.”

Sin glanced up for a moment, then went back to his fight. “A little. But no one could possibly top my extraordinarily good looks. I am one of a kind, tesoro.”

Tsuna laughed merrily and nodded. “That you are,” he said fondly.

Sin paused in his struggle to give him a look that promised all sorts of naughty things, then went in for the home stretch. A few seconds later he was holding up a massive trout and was sporting a cocky grin. “I am good.” His voice just oozed arrogance and self-satisfaction.

The fish was quickly de-hooked and tossed in the basket, and more bait added. Reborn stepped back again as Sin cast his line, then stepped forward.

Tsuna looked over in mild surprise, as if he had forgotten the stranger encroaching on their space was even there, then said, “You know, I think he does have an issue with social anxiety. He’s barely said a word.”

Sin shrugged. “Maybe he’s a talent scout and is studying us to see if we’d make for good models. Can you imagine? The two of us on the cover of some high-end men’s magazine?”

“Pfft. If I’m going to take on a career it’ll be as a chef of some kind. Having countless people staring at me like a piece of meat would be disconcerting to say the least. I’d have to carry a Taser at all times.”

Sin chuckled. “We could start a business, tesoro, a combined shooting range and café. Anyone who tops the high score would get a discount on their next order.”

Tsuna scoffed. “No one would top your score.”

“Of course not! But the lure of managing it, the anticipated heady flush of success…”

That time it was Reborn who scoffed. “I don’t think training on an arcade machine is going to cut it, boys.”

They turned their heads as one to stare at him with serene smiles.

“He has no clue, tesoro,” Sin commented.

“He doesn’t,” Tsuna agreed. “It’s interesting seeing ignorance in action.”

Reborn’s hackles went up, figuratively speaking. No Reborn, after all, would ever be caught doing something so plebeian as negatively reacting so freely and obviously. They confined themselves to narrowed eyes or expressive brows or other subtle body language, stuff like that. Well, and the occasional look that promised a slow, painful death, or worse, a drawn-out, torturous experience being the target of his “pranks”.

Sin, no longer technically being a Reborn, was free to express himself far more openly.

Tsuna spared a moment to blink when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Sun Arcana.

—flashed up in front of his eyes. He wanted to groan or face-palm, but strangled the impulse.

“We’ll meet again,” Reborn promised (or threatened ) in a growl, then quickly disappeared.

Sin shared a smirk with him, then both went back to reeling in more fish—at least, until it got too close to five.

The fish went with Sin, and Tsuna headed to the Dojima house to make dinner with Nanako and eat in front of the TV. The news report was full of nothing much interesting, so after the washing up was done he tackled the sewing part of one of his cousin’s doll projects, and quickly realized he was going to have to ask for advice on the best type of stitch to use. He had no plans to buy a sewing machine, and Nanako wouldn’t be allowed to use one, anyway, at her age.

‘I can always reserve this coming Sunday for asking Tatsumi-kun, I suppose.’ Because really, a blanket stitch (one of the simplest) was in no way appropriate for doll-making activities. He sighed and shook his head. The things he did for family. For the time being, they would simply have to stick to fabric glue. He had found one that was okay to wash, so at least he had that much going for him, and a blanket stitch on folded seams would help prevent the edges unraveling. He could glue those, too, but using a blanket stitch was a step forward in being accustomed to using a needle at all.

He knew, deep down, that the odds of him actually living long enough to teach his cousin to be a master-class chef were so low as to be virtually nonexistent, but he could do his best to instill good habits in the child, ones that would help her to succeed in life.

It just had to figure that the one life he had expected to be able to safely ignore the Arcobaleno (beyond ensuring they were freed from their life-and-flame-leeching curse) was turning into one where he had no choice but to deal with them—or some of them.

Reborn had arrived! The world was going to hell. In a grossly oversized hand-basket. With purple cushions. And in-flight drinks service.

####  31 May 2011, Tuesday

Reborn was still in town—as Xeul cheerfully informed him—so they had to actually go to school themselves, which was a total drag. Dealing with Morooka-sensei’s morning rants was an exercise in patience, as he had to stay at least partially aware of his surroundings rather than mentally check out.

After school he stopped by the shrine and was given a new ema by the fox. He could only hope Reborn was spying on his counterpart and not paying attention to Tsuna’s activities.

_I have nothing to live for. I want to recapture the joy of life._

Tsuna hummed, nodded to the fox, and wandered back out to the street where his friends were waiting.

“Someone suffering severe depression?” Hayato mused.

“A shop owner forced out of business by Junes?” Mukuro suggested.

“Let’s check the shopping district first,” he said, “and if that doesn’t work…”

His friends got the unspoken message, and why he failed to finish the thought. They started at one end and walked slowly along its length, keeping an eye out for someone, anyone, who looked depressed or flagging.

They eventually noticed one such man standing in front of a boarded-up shop front. He was gazing at the place wistfully and ignoring everything around him. When Tsuna wandered over, alone, the man snapped out of his abstraction to say, “Isn’t this a great-looking shop? My grandfather started this shop. And I closed it down. Nowadays, kids don’t make models. If they want toys, Junes has a much bigger selection. I can’t compete.

“A long time ago, kids used to come in here and show off the models they’d built, comparing to see who was best. The store was so lively. Ah, those were the days.” The haggard-looking man sighed and stared off into the distance. “I feel sorry for the toys that still remain in the store. I want them to be completed, but it’d be even more pathetic if they had to be constructed by me. The models would be happier if a young kid like you made them.”

Tsuna affected to look interested and inquired, “Want me to make one?”

The man startled and actually looked at him. “Huh? W-would you do that? Do you have model paint at your place? You need clippers? Do you use putty!? What about detail pens!?” The barrage of questions halted when the man pulled something from his pocket and shoved it at Tsuna. “Here, you can have this! Please show it to me when you’re done!”

As soon as Tsuna accepted the kit, the man departed, looking a bit less despondent.

He stared at the kit in his hand, an MF-06S Brahman, whatever that was, and wondered where he was going to get the things the man had mentioned. He shot a clueless look at his partners in crime, and headed off in the direction of the Rokudo house.

Reborn was in town, but not even Reborn could stand against their skills. A quick visit to an obscured spot and they vanished. Should Reborn come looking for his doppelgänger, he would be gently rebuffed, redirected, away from the house.

Daemon took one look at what he was holding and stepped out, so Tsuna assumed he was off to purchase necessary supplies. The model was set down on the nearest table and Tsuna automatically went to the kitchen so he could throw something together. Being deprived of caring directly, daily for his family was frustrating and made him feel useless, but it helped to make things that could be frozen for them to reheat, or something a little more immediate.

He had just finished up some dough and set it aside to rise when his brother came back with a bag, which was placed next to the model kit on the table.

“Another one of those fox deals?” Daemon half-asked, half-stated.

“Right. And really, those magic leaves it has are awesome, so a discount is nice.”

Daemon smiled knowingly. “But getting the shrine cleaned up by the townspeople remembering to give a damn is better.”

He shrugged, not denying it.

“You’re such a soft-hearted idiot at times,” Daemon said fondly.

“He’s _our_ soft-hearted idiot,” Hayato said a touch roughly, his old defensiveness shining through for a moment at the hint of criticism.

Daemon rolled his eyes.

Tsuna shook his head and sighed. “Does anyone have a clue how to make models? Because I need to learn, at least well enough to put that thing together and give that man some hope.”

His twins perked up and he just knew what they were thinking, so he shook his head again. “Nope. We do this the old-fashioned way, and don’t you dare tell me that involves mind-fuckery.”

They wilted in unison.

“See what you can do in the way of a trip soon, so we can go hunt down and eliminate some defects, all right? Then you can use all the mind-fuckery you want. I know it’s hellaciously boring here for everyone and we could all use a little fun, or at least stress relief. Preferably after Reborn gets bored or is called away on a job, so he’s not here to notice any glitches in the matrix.”

A pregnant pause hung heavy in the air, then broke when Hayato said a bit diffidently, “I used to make models back in the day.”

Tsuna beamed at him. “Can you walk me through making this? Or help?” And when Hayato nodded, he said, “Awesome!”

The kit did come with instructions, but for someone like Tsuna they may as well have been written in Greek—or, well, the Morse Code equivalent of Sandawe. The pictures were not very helpful, either.

Hayato gave him a reassuring look and set to patiently explaining, setting all the pieces out roughly in line with where they would go in the completed project, so that Tsuna could see how they would all … compress … into one piece. So to speak.

A brief break was had when Tsuna needed to go punch his dough down and form loaves for the next rise, and he came back hear Ken making suggestions. “Why can’t we add wings!? It’d be way more cool with wings!”

“They’d get caught up on those huge fucking guns,” Hayato protested, tapping the image on the box. “Besides, we’re doing this to help the shrine, not to appease our own sense of aesthetics.”

Ken scowled and sat back with a huff.

Tsuna had the feeling Ken might just slip away long enough to buy models more to his tastes. If nothing else it was something to do to pass the time. All of them had picked up new tricks, talents, hobbies, and basically, anything they could to fill out the endless-seeming hours of their unending lives.

‘Why anyone would think immortality would be welcomed is clearly insane,’ he thought as he watched Hayato begin the process of assembly with one of the figure’s legs. ‘The sheer weight of experience is… Mortal minds weren’t designed for it. It’s a wonder we aren’t all bugnuts.’ He started assembling the other leg, following Hayato’s tutelage.

When he got home Dojima was there, which made him pause momentarily. His uncle had a newspaper to hand again. He dropped his things off upstairs and came back down, collecting Nanako on the way, and got started on dinner, a yakiniku donburi with plenty of vegetables.

He set his cousin to measuring out what he would need for the yakiniku sauce while he thinly-sliced the beef. And then, as he worked his way through making various vegetables bite-sized, he had her make the sauce, reminding her to take it off the heat after two minutes. She moved on to the handling the rice as he continued with the vegetables, both cutting and sauteing, then the beef, and finally combining both with the sauce.

Shortly thereafter the three of them were sitting down to dinner in front of the TV. The news report was thankfully devoid of anything nasty and ended up being a aural accompaniment to dinner and something to look at rather than pay active attention to.

After the washing up was done and, as he was preparing to head upstairs, Dojima chose that moment to say, “I was thinking of taking Nanako to Junes. You wanna come along?”

He blinked in surprise, then nodded. “Sure.”

Nanako started jumping up and down in excitement, which conveyed her feelings on the idea nicely. The three of them were quickly in the car and on the way to his cousin’s absolute favorite place in her small world.

They ended up in the grocery section of Junes, to Tsuna’s mystification. Nanako was just thrilled to be there and looked at everything with interest and excitement, occasionally singing, “♫ Every day’s great at your Junes! ♫”

Once she had managed to check everything out she looked at him and said, “Did you want something, onii-san?”

“Go ahead and get whatever you want, but make it quick,” Dojima said.

Tsuna nodded and looked back to his cousin. “How would you like to make dango soon?”

Nanako clapped and nodded.

“All right. Let’s get what we’d need, then.”


	8. λ21: 08: 01-10 June 2011

## λ21  
08: 01-10 June 2011

####  01 June 2011, Wednesday

They sent clones in to attend classes and stuck to the house. Windows were used to keep an eye out for Reborn trolling around while Hayato continued to patiently guide Tsuna through constructing the model.

“Maybe we should go back in,” Ken said. “I know returns are diminishing hard, but maybe you could use that as an opportunity to try to level up some of your weaker Personas?”

Tsuna paused, glue pen in one hand and part in the other, to pull up the overlay with a mere thought. While he could not see all the Personas he had access to—Margaret had those in her compendium—he could check to see what level his active ones were and how far off they were from leveling, plus what skill was next up to be acquired (or none, as the case may be, as he had quickly learned that some Personas only had a bare handful of inherent or learned skills, whereas Personas acquired through fusion could inherit skills from its “parents”).

“I suppose so,” he said, “and it would mean more stuff to sell to Daidara. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he can make new, better weapons out of all of it. He’s the only one selling gear that actually pertains to our new occupation as tough-guy investigators.”

Chikusa suddenly snickered. “Just imagine if we had something like those enchanted weapons from Skyrim, stuff with Soul Trap. How would that even work? Soul trapping the manifested negative emotions inside the collective unconscious? All so we could enchant our own weapons with specific things.”

“It does beg the question of whether or not all our training has any effect on the populace here,” Hayato said. “If people’s hearts are lightened or…? Or if they just keep manufacturing more of it, because a temporary cessation of negativity doesn’t deal with whatever was causing it all to begin with.”

Tsuna grimaced. “Teens—and even younger children—can be cesspools of irrationality and jealousy and spite and…”

“Figuring out where in the hierarchy they stand and who they can step all over?” Mukuro suggested. “Children tend to lack empathy. Even Kyoko was like that. So very concerned with her own wishes that she never once stopped to think about what made her brother happy, and how unhappy he would be bowing to her near demands that he stop fighting.”

Ken nodded. “Maybe she thought it was too much like being a thug, or a pathway to becoming yakuza or something. Narrow-minded thinking, either way. True, Ryohei could have been more empathetic to his sister’s fears and concerns, but he’s so … simple.”

It was almost a crime that Ryohei had so often been pressed into service as a guardian. The poor kid was closer to Crabbe and Goyle, except that Ryohei was fundamentally bright and cheerful and uncomplicated in a positive way, rather than a brain-dead minion who played the role of bodyguard-thug for a child too vested in turning his aristocratic nose up at anyone who failed to meet his narrow standards.

He imagined that back in Namimori, things were much the same. Ryohei would be cheerfully trying to shout people into joining the Boxing Club, Takeshi would embrace his beloved baseball and dream, perhaps, of going professional, and Hibari would delight in wailing the tar out of anyone he could manufacture an excuse for going after.

His own removal from the situation wouldn’t be even a blip on the radar, because he had remained distant from the start, did everything he could to remain beneath their notice, just another face in the crowd.

By the time the clones returned—to report that nothing interesting had happened—the model was complete, so Tsuna hastened off to show it to the erstwhile shopkeep.

“That’s the MF-06S Brahman I gave you! You actually built it… Wow, it’s good, well made…”

Tsuna was mildly embarrassed that the man teared up with emotion.

“Making plastic models takes a lot of time, huh? The time you spend makes the love for your creation deeper.” The man sniffed and laughed a little. “I must be getting old. I was recalling the days I spent toiling away at plastic models. It was fun… But it’s all in the past now. Thank you. By giving me a glimpse of this joy, you made me realize that this phase of my life has passed. I thank you. Oh, and the shrine, too. I finally feel like I can find something else to live for,” he said, smiling sadly.

“Oh, yeah. You can have this, too. I have fond memories of this model,” the man said as he handed over another kit. “I don’t need it anymore. It’s time to move on.”

Tsuna waited to see which way the man would go and, when he headed for the shrine, waited until he appeared again to go there himself. The fox was pleased, the Hermit Social Link progressed to six, and he waved before heading back out. He could come back in a day or so to see if anything new had turned up.

####  02 June 2011, Thursday

He was at Junes with the idea of poking around to see if there were any books or movies that looked interesting. A chance look at the windows showed that Hanamura-kun was outside.

“Um… I’m going to go talk to the kid for a minute,” he said. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Sin nodded and flipped another DVD case over to see the back, so Tsuna headed out into the food court. His sort-of-but-not-really friend noticed him and loped over, then pointed back at the covered picnic table.

Tsuna nodded and joined him there, to get out of the rain.

“Hanging out here every so often isn’t that bad,” Yosuke said. “Even if I’m short on cash, I can get a discount—my friends, too. Though, there’s a small price to pay in exchange for that…” He trailed off, looking vaguely annoyed.

“Oh, there you are, Hanamura-kun!” a girl’s voice called out sharply.

“For example…” Yosuke’s annoyance turned to a frown before it was wiped away. “Hello there, senpai. What’s wrong today?” he asked as the girl, accompanied by another, came over to stand beneath the shelter of the canopy.

“You better say something to that blockhead manager! I told him I can’t come in on Saturdays or Sundays. But he’s saying I have to be here since we’re low on staff. And if I don’t, he’ll fire me!”

“Isn’t there some kinda law against that!?” Yellow-Blouse said, almost sneering.

Yosuke stared at them for a few seconds. “Er, but… Didn’t you two say you could work weekends during your interviews?”

“Well, _yeah_ ,” Red-Dress said. “They wouldn’t hire us if we didn’t!”

Yosuke stared again, then nodded. “All right, I got it. I’ll try talking to him. But you don’t want to get fired, right? It’d make it easier for me to strike a deal if you could show up every now and then on weekends.”

Red-Dress sniffed. “…We’ll think about it.”

“You’d better do it, ’kay?”

“Oh, Yosuke-kun!” a woman’s voice said. “Just the man I was looking for. Remember that claim I had the other day? Well, the head butcher said—”

“All right, all right, let’s talk over there,” Yosuke interrupted, waving his hand and pointing. “Sorry,” he said to Tsuna, “could you give me a minute?”

Tsuna nodded and watched as all four of them departed, the two girls to parts unknown, and Yosuke and the woman to over near the counter area, which was protected by an awning. The woman was wearing a Junes apron, so she must work there as well.

Yosuke came back a minute later and slumped onto the bench. “I’m beat. I’m not the complaints department…”

“I really don’t see how you can stand it,” he said honestly.

Yosuke smiled wanly. “Dude, it’s nothing but trouble! Geez… Everyone’s just trying to take advantage of me as the Junes kid. Maybe I wouldn’t mind if I was on the job, but… Why am I getting bothered when I’m here off the clock?”

“Aside from not coming here on your off hours… But there aren’t a lot of places to go here. Maybe fishing? Some kind of hobby that you enjoy. Or going to Okina City, I suppose.”

“Man, if only I had a motorcycle or a scooter,” Yosuke groused. “I could ride my bike all the way there, but it’d take so long, and I’m starting to think I need to replace it. Still, a round-trip ticket isn’t that expensive, and Okina City has an arcade.”

Tsuna smiled warmly, though he was faking it for all he was worth. “Some hobbies can even get some extra spending money, though you might have to sell using a global online marketplace—something like that. I wouldn’t doubt there’s stuff for just Japan, but foreigners can be kinda weirdly in love with things from our country, especially if they’re handmade.”

Yosuke looked taken aback at the suggestion.

“I imagine it’d potentially be problematic to start out, since you need money to make money, but…” He shrugged.

Yosuke huffed. “I never thought I’d be talking about stuff like this… Before I moved here, everything was all small talk. Stupid, trivial things. I thought that was fine. But maybe it’s time to start looking forward…?” He blinked and shook his head. “Oh, uh, I need to get going. Thanks,” he said, smiling sheepishly.

Tsuna nodded and got up, even as a rank message flashed up in front of him, and went back inside to join Sin and the others in looking for entertainment options.

Nanako started pacing restlessly shortly after he got home. “Dad’s late again today,” she said, then turned and ran to the phone when it rang. “Moshi moshi,” she said into the receiver. “Dad! …Huh. …Really!? …Okay. …Okay, I understand.” She hung up and turned a smile on Tsuna. “Dad’s coming home now. We should get dinner ready.”

“Let me drop my bag upstairs and we’ll get started.”

Part way through meal prep Nanako made a sound of frustration. “We’re out of pickled radish. Dad’ll be disappointed.”

He realized, after a moment of thought, that every time Dojima had been home early, Nanako had done up a little dish of the stuff, no matter what they were going to be eating. “I’d say we could go get some, but I don’t think he’d be happy about us leaving when he’s going to be home shortly. We’ll put it on the list, and get some on Sunday. We need to be more aware when it comes to things running low, that’s all.”

Nanako looked disappointed—he knew it was because she always counted a trip to Junes as a joyful thing—but nodded. “Okay. You’re right. Dad wouldn’t want to come home to an empty house.”

“That, too.”

Somehow that counted as an increase in his Social Link with her.

It came up over dinner. Nanako mentioned it to her father and added, “But onii-san said it’d have to wait until Sunday.”

“Pickled radish… For me…? Well, you’re right. You promised me you wouldn’t go out at night without me, so I would have been upset if you hadn't been here, even if your cousin went with you.”

Nanako looked both happy and sad, but happy won out, and she resumed her meal in good spirits.

####  03 June 2011, Friday

The fox had another ema for him.

_I want to be able to converse better. I don’t want to hurt people with the rude things I say when I’m nervous._

Tsuna’s brow went up in dismay. He nodded, departed, and sighed, then let his intuition guide him.

‘Awesome,’ he thought, ‘I get to go clear across town, all the way to the school. Just awesome.’

There was a girl standing up on the school’s roof, staring at nothing in particular, but she quickly enough noticed him there and said, “Wh-what? Don’t just walk up to me and talk to me all of a sudden! Don’t you know that’s rude!?

“Oh… Um… S-sorry for blowing up like that. It’s fine. I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere or anything. So…” She started mumbling to herself, acting more and more flustered, all because he just stood there silently.

He supposed he had it coming when she burst out with, “What do you want? S-stop staring at my face! Normal people would have left by now, yelling something at me. …You’re weird.”

“Do you need help with your speaking skills?” he asked mildly.

The girl flailed. “Wha—! Wh-where’d you hear that!?” she demanded, then went still. “…Oh. I-It’s not like I’m worried about it! L-leave me alone!”

“I’m willing to help,” he persisted. “Consider them lessons.”

“C-conversation lessons!? I-I don’t need them!” she denied. “Leave me alone!”

He was just about to retreat and try another day when she spoke again.

“But if you really want to teach someone, then maybe I’ll listen to you for a while, just to be nice.”

Tsuna smiled faintly and nodded. He used a combination of Hayato and Lambo as a guide for the tips he gave her, such as pausing to think about what she wanted to say before she said it, rather than just blurting things out, and she seemed to be taking it in, but—

“Y-you should’ve told me this earlier!” A pause. “Oh… Um… That’s not right. It would have been most desirable if you would have imparted this wisdom at a much earlier occasion. …Like that?”

“It’s an improvement,” he said.

“Um… Th-thank you. …I hope … you can teach me again sometime. B-bye!” She whirled around and ran off, disappearing through the door to the stairwell.

‘Right.’

Nanako clapped happily. “Dango! Dango! Dango!”

He laughed lightly and waited until she got on her stool to begin. He let her make the spheres after he mixed the rice flour, tofu, and sugar together. By the time she was done the large pot of water he had going was boiling, so he took over so he could drop all the spheres into it.

“Now we wait until they float, and then we wait another couple of minutes.”

“And after that?”

“We put them in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes to stop them from cooking further. While that’s happening, I can make the mitarashi sauce.”

“But they gotta go on the skewers!” she said earnestly.

He nodded. “We can do that while the sauce is heating up.”

Shortly thereafter he was spooning sauce onto the tri-sphered skewers, and then they were enjoying a delicious snack together.

“You’re still going to have room for dinner, right?” he asked.

Nanako looked shocked. “Of course!”

“Okay.”

Nanako rather messily devoured a sphere and said, “These are great, onii-san!”

“I’m glad you think so.”

####  04 June 2011, Saturday

“Reborn has been spotted again,” Xeul reported as he was making breakfast.

Tsuna groaned. “Well, he did threaten that we’d see him again. I guess we’re going to school.”

His fellow victims grumbled. “Fuck,” Hayato muttered. “Gotta fucking deal with those damn girls all eyeing me up like a piece of meat.”

“Well you do rock that bad boy aura,” Mukuro teased.

“And you rock the psychotic serial killer look,” Sin said cheerily.

“Of course I do,” Mukuro replied matter-of-factly. “I do have the memories of one.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “Okay, breakfast is ready. Um, we’re going to have to pull food from the stasis pile for lunch, since I don’t really have time to make fresh bentos. I’ll see you guys in a bit.” He gave Sin a peck on the cheek, then dashed off to a normally unused closet so he could turn back, then hung the time turner up for later retrieval and stepped back to the Dojima house.

“So,” Reborn said, having slipped into place between one moment and the next, even going so far as to match their stride as they walked the road down from the school to the town proper.

“I do, actually,” Tsuna said. “Sew, that is. Why do you bring it up? Are you here to teach embroidery or something?”

The familiar “Are you mental?” look flashed by.

Tsuna hummed. “That exceptionally eloquent expression says no. How are you today, Ki-san? How has your time been in our sleepy little town?” He would like to cut straight to the point, but that was not how things worked. Apparently he did need a holiday if he was itching to cut out all the trappings of civilized manners and bypass trolling as an option. What was surprising was that—

“So, who’s your father, kid?” Reborn asked Sin bluntly.

‘Ah, there it is, Reborn going right for the jugular,’ he thought. ‘He does have a tendency to be distressingly blunt at times.’

Sin smiled sunnily. “The man who donated sperm to fertilize the egg my mother provided, which resulted in me, a god amongst men.”

Reborn scowled. “And his name?”

“The one he was given at birth?”

“Which is?”

“A perfectly normal name, I assure you,” Sin said sunnily.

“Is it customary for strange men to ask such personal questions?” he muttered. “Because I don’t remember that being the case. Is this a foreign thing?”

“It might well be,” Sin replied with a nod of his head.

“You two are a regular comedy duo,” Reborn said dryly.

“Now that is a profession I had not considered,” he said just as dryly. “And I never will. I shall continue on my path to being the world’s greatest chef.”

“And I will be the world’s greatest sous chef,” Sin said firmly.

“In your little café with the attached shooting range,” Reborn said disbelievingly.

Tsuna beamed. “You remembered! You could be one of our first customers. You look like the sort who’d find guns appealing. All that old world style, a bit of film noir, the hat…” He switched focus to Sin. “I wonder how you’d look with a fedora?”

Sin laughed. “C’mon, tesoro, you know damn well that the only people who wear fedoras in this day and age are so-called nice guys who say things like ‘m’lady’ and then go all misogynistic when the object—and I do mean object—of their affections treats them like a friend.”

Reborn looked positively insulted.

He could practically hear the man’s thoughts. ‘I get plenty of action, damn it! And I’m exceptionally careful when I do!’

Tsuna nodded in agreement, then shot a suspicious look at Reborn. “What country do you think he’s from? That might explain the hat.”

Sin looked his counterpart over with a discerning eye. “That hat, that suit? Italy.”

Reborn’s brow slid up and Tsuna felt that oh so familiar impending sense of doom, but in a muted sense.

“You remember that one manga we used to read?” Sin continued.

“…Oh. Oh! That one. Right, I see it now,” he said, eyeing Reborn clinically. It was beside the point that no such manga existed in his collection… Unless in some alternate universe his original life was literally a manga, which was disturbing in the extreme. “But…”

Sin’s brow went up, a faint, barely-there smirk hovering at the corner of his mouth.

Tsuna leaned in closer so as to pay lip service to being vaguely polite and whispered, “Those sideburns…”

Sin laughed again.

That was one thing that had to go after Sin had been _reborn_ into a new alternate along with the rest of them. Two men, virtual twins, running around with those crazy sideburns was just begging for trouble. He generally wore them tapered and faded. Stylish without being outlandish. Considering they could look like anyone they wanted with the power of inborn Mist or one of Tsuna’s anchored disguises…

“So,” Reborn drawled, clearly unhappy about being ignored. Again. “Is your father’s name Shiranai?”

Tsuna and Sin exchanged a look. “His name is his name,” Sin said sunnily as a serene smile slid into place on Tsuna’s face.

“I will figure you out,” Reborn threatened in a low voice just bursting at the seams with frustration. Can’t have the World’s Greatest Hitman going after civilians, after all, and underage ones at that.

Tsuna’s smile upped a notch in intensity. “You are welcome to try, Ki-san,” he said as another rank message flashed by.

Reborn huffed off a moment later, determination writ in his every movement.

Tsuna and Sin slipped off to a convenient spot, stepped over to the Rokudo house, and laughed again.

“Now that you’re here,” Ken said impatiently, “can we get on with the Persona leveling?”

He gave his Sun a knowing look. Ken wasn’t the only one who looked forward to a dungeon crawl purely for the “wail the tar out of things” method of releasing frustration and boredom. He captured Ken briefly in a bear hug, then let go and nodded. “Yes, we can. Just let me check our stasis storage supply…”

“And now for the weather,” the announcer said cheerfully. “The week ended on a wet note as rain clouds moved into the area. As a result, a thick fog is expected to form in the Inaba region later tonight.”

Once he got upstairs he opened a window over the screen of his laptop and saw Daemon immediately hone in on it.

“Fog, huh?” he said in Spanish.

“I am going to assume this will mean you will shortly be able to initiate a Social Link with Tatsumi,” his brother replied. “He’s already tentatively leaning toward you in that sense. Yes, I peeked, of course. You’ve been nothing but open and accepting, and it is working and getting through to him.”

“You think any link won’t start until after this, uh, cycle has been completed.”

Daemon nodded. “It’s still just a theory, but for now I’m working under the assumption that anyone we rescue from that world will be off limits for an established Social Link until after the fog for that cycle.”

“Whereas people who are…” He thought for a moment on how to word it. “Peripherally involved? Like Hanamura and Satonaka. Those people are considered valid even during a cycle, I guess. I rather doubt I’m going to establish a link with Tatsumi-san, though.”

Daemon shook his head. “I expect the only adults would be your uncle and some or all of the Arcobaleno. How many actually show up remains to be seen, and I don’t honestly see you raising those very high.”

“Reborn aside, potentially,” he said with a quirk of his lips. “And even then I wouldn’t expect a—well, I’m not what would constitute a full Social Link? Ten, maybe. Stuff like that is usually in multiples of ten.”

“Which makes me wonder what’ll happen if you max a Social Link.” Daemon shrugged and immediately changed the subject. “Maybe tomorrow, after shopping and possibly a short visit to Tatsumi Textiles, we could all go take a break for a few hours.”

He hummed. “We could go to South Korea and poke around, acquire a few recipes, and just wander, do some shopping…”

Daemon smiled. “I’ll let the others know, darling. We’ll take some time for ourselves. Now be a good boy and do your homework.”

Tsuna scowled and stored the window. His brother would rue the day! Possibly. If he could think up some suitable manner of revenge.

####  05 June 2011, Sunday

Nanako was mostly comfortable by that point with Sin always insinuating himself into their weekly shopping trips, which was nice. She remained a bit shy around the Sun, but considering they only interacted for any length of time once a week, he could understand that. His cousin was adorable and seemed to lack the oblivious qualities of his mother, qualities that Dojima shared in some respects—or at least the ability to be in willful denial and wear a set of self-imposed blinders.

He rolled his eyes slightly and carefully set a mango in his basket. Thai salad was on the menu that week, as his cousin had said she was willing to give it a try. He was going to make a ginger-peanut dressing to go with it.

Once everything was packed away at the house, he and Sin headed off to Tatsumi Textiles for a quick visit. “Do you do custom work, Tatsumi-san?” he asked Kanji’s mother.

“Some, yes,” she replied. “We took on a commission some time ago for matching scarves, as an example.”

“What about yukata? Or is that more of a deal where you sell the fabrics and someone else…?”

She nodded, then produced a card from a small file box she kept nearby and offered it to him.

It had the information for a place that did custom work on traditional wear, in Okina City. “Thank you very much, Tatsumi-san. I don’t think my own skill at sewing is anywhere near the necessary level to attempt to make my own, so having this helps. I will investigate. Hopefully they will allow for me to purchase the fabric from here and work with that, so I am still contributing to our town.”

“They will,” she said with a nod. “Was there something in particular you had in mind?”

“A selection of yukata,” he said. “I am fond of lavender for the yukata, with obi in indigo. Understated, calm, so nothing with a pattern too, uh … busy, or stands out too much.”

She nodded again and rose to her feet, then led the way to a set of fabrics, pulling out various bolts to show him her suggestions.

“Oh, these are lovely,” he said. “About how much would I need per yukata, and for the obi?”

An hour later they were exiting the shop with a ton of fabric. He had memorized the information on the card before including it in the package for safekeeping, though the whole thing had gone straight into storage the moment it was safe to do so.

After that they headed to the Rokudo house to join the others on a trip to South Korea, specifically Jeju Island, for some relaxation and fun.

####  06 June 2011, Monday

The sun was shining brightly as they exited the front doors of the school, having gone in personally for once due to having heard that Tatsumi-kun would be returning. Not so surprisingly, the boy was hovering awkwardly at the front gates, and jolted a bit on seeing Tsuna emerge, which made his expression go a bit nervous.

As his little group got closer Tsuna smiled and said, “Afternoon, Tatsumi-san. How are you?”

“Oh, uh… Fine, I’m fine. Uh…”

“Would you like to walk with us?” he asked. “We have to go toward the shopping district anyway. Our houses are out that way.”

“Sure…”

Tsuna’s smiled ratcheted up a notch and he nodded. “I’m going to have to visit Okina City soon,” he said conversationally. “Your mother gave me a card for a place that can make yukata. As I said to her, my skills at sewing aren’t even close enough to risk that fabric I bought yesterday.”

“You… You like traditional wear?” Kanji asked, seemingly once again bewildered.

Sin laughed softly. “He’s certainly got the right build to wear them.”

Tsuna huffed. “As do we all. But I quite like them. They’re stylish, comfortable, and make a statement of sorts. I don’t think I’m of a mind to purchase a sewing machine just yet, though. I doubt my uncle would like the idea of Nanako-chan using one any more than he likes her using scissors or a needle without supervision, and probably less.”

Everyone politely refrained from making blatantly disparaging remarks about the man in front of a near-total stranger. “She is only seven,” Mukuro commented.

Tsuna shrugged. “That’s why I originally went with fabric glue for the dolls and why I only allow her to do so much while making dinner.”

“Y-you cook, too?”

Tsuna nodded at Kanji. “My mother was the chef at a restaurant in the town where I used to live, before she got remarried. I learned a lot. Japanese cuisine—other countries, too. I like to think of cooking for friends and family as a way to show I care. And I’m not bad at it.”

Hayato snorted. “Not bad, he says,” he muttered.

Kanji’s expression continued to run the gamut of confusion and bewilderment, not to mention a few shades of suspicion, but he trundled along with them without complaint.

“Well, if you like,” he said, “I can make us all something. We’d have to go to your house, though. You know what my uncle is like.”

“He is a cop,” Sin said. “They’re trained to be suspicious.”

“Sure,” Mukuro said smoothly. “Because living in Tokyo for a few years automatically makes a person part of the yakuza or something. Clearly, we’re all suspect.”

Tsuna shrugged resignedly. They all knew why Dojima was none too keen on him, being a bastard and all. Plus them all showing up as new students right before the deaths and disappearances started. “Anything in particular you don’t like, Tatsumi-san?”

“Oh, uh… Kanji is fine. I uh … like most things.”

Tsuna nodded. “All right, Kanji-kun. I’ve been meaning to do some baking anyway. My uncle’s kitchen isn’t really convenient.”

Kanji looked distinctly uncomfortable being in the Rokudo house as a veritable stranger, but accepted a seat in the kitchen easily enough, along with a soft drink.

Tsuna busied himself with making all sorts of goodies, but started with Sin’s beloved brownies. While those were in the oven he started a batch of muffins. Sin was helping by starting on dango. So long as Tsuna had had _some_ part in the making of them, his weird and much appreciated talent with “improving” food would kick in.

Half an hour later of random chatter and homework (Mukuro was kind enough to help Kanji with better understanding some of his own, an act that was received with confusion, mild suspicion, and gratefulness) Tsuna served up fresh brownies.

Kanji took one bite and practically melted in appreciation.

Tsuna smiled softly and turned back to what he was working on. “Kanji-kun, please feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but I was curious about something.” He could see in the window he opened on the kid so he could work and still see reactions that Kanji went briefly stiff and suspicious.

“My reputation?” Kanji said roughly, then had another bite of his brownie.

Tsuna hummed. “You just don’t strike me as a bad person. All my uncle had to say was that you took out some gangs so that the noise they’d make wouldn’t keep your mother up at night.”

“Well, yeah! Bastards always raising a ruckus. Can’t they take that shit out of town? Ma works hard, damn it! She needs her rest.”

“A thoughtful son,” he said softly. He slid the last of his work into the oven, set a timer, then took a seat at the table. A skewer of dango quickly found its way into his hand. “I remember a guy in my old town. He liked to call everyone herbivores and himself the only true carnivore. He was always threatening to bite people to death.”

“I’m still divided on whether or not the hospital liked having so much patronage because of him, or hated him for all the extra work,” Hayato said.

Tsuna snorted in amusement. “He liked to keep the peace in town,” he said to Kanji. “He wouldn’t tolerate anyone causing trouble in what he saw as his territory. Had a wicked soft spot for small animals. Of course, he got away with a lot more than the average person. His family was quite well off, you see. Even the police were a bit wary of interfering in his crusade. I found it interesting that my uncle—he is a detective—had something of an air of resigned patience when it came to you, so I was inclined to ignore the rumors.”

“Well, uh… Yeah, okay. That’s… That’s good.”

Tsuna smiled serenely, then glanced at the clock. A frown stole over his face as he sighed. “I need to get going, guys, else Nanako-chan will get hungry and impatient and fry up an egg or something, and I was looking forward to gyudon.”

Sin presented him with a small selection of what he’d baked, tucked away in a box, then gave him a quick kiss. “Go on, then. We’ll see you in the morning.”

He hummed and nodded, then threw a glance at Kanji, who quickly jumped up. Sin produced another box and handed it to the boy, who looked predictably surprised, then walked with them to the front door.

“If nothing else, we can talk later, over Skype or whatever,” Sin said.

“After dinner. Be nice if my uncle wasn’t so damn suspicious. You could come over for once.” He shrugged, then walked away with Kanji.

When it came time to separate a short distance on Kanji shifted uncomfortably and said, “Thanks. You know, for uh … not makin’ assumptions and all.”

Tsuna smiled at him. “Well, it’s been kind of you to help me with my questions. I’ll see you around, I’m sure. Please pass my regards to your mother.”

Kanji nodded a bit stiltedly and wandered off, so Tsuna continued on to the Dojima house, though he wasn’t the least bit surprised when he saw—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Emperor Arcana.

—flash up in front of his eyes, nor when later that night, while speaking to his family long distance, that another rank for Fool was obtained.

####  07 June 2011, Tuesday

“Your lesson didn’t work! I just tried starting up a cheerful conversation with a girl in my class… B-But I got nervous all of a sudden. I said something I wasn’t even thinking! ‘Move aside, ugly, I’m comin’ through!’ Wh-What should I do? She just started crying…”

Tsuna nodded slightly. “In a case like that, you need to apologize to her. It’s a matter of manners, remorse for a mistake you’ve made, and the courage to admit it and apologize.” He spent a few minutes persuading her to go with his advice, and knew for certain that he had succeeded (without just cheating and using Mist) when she appeared to find her backbone, thanked him without any stuttering or hesitation, and marched off toward the staircase to go do just that.

He _did_ cheat and keep an eye on her using a window as he made his way down from the roof. The girl found her victim, explained the problem, her mistake, and apologized (though her victim was more than a little bewildered by the event), then babbled something about the shrine and dashed away.

That being the case, he followed her to the shrine, waited for her to exit, then went in to gain another rank with the fox.

####  08 June 2011, Wednesday

“It’s June already, eh?” Kondo-san said the next morning in class. “Well, good news! Tatsumi-kun from first year is back with us, so try to set good examples! I know it’s the rainy season, and you may not be very motivated, but let’s keep our spirits up together, okay!? Last night, I was watching this drama on TV, and one of the actors was such a ham! Is it just me, or are a lot of actors really hamming it up these days?” He laughed, for some reason.

Yukiko leaned closer a bit awkwardly. “…Tsuna-kun? I know a ‘ham’ is a bad actor, but where does the term come from? Do you know?”

He glanced back and said quietly, “From the play, Hamlet.”

Kondo overheard the exchange and said, “Wow, I’m amazed that you knew that, Dojima-kun. But you should ask me if you have questions, not him! Yes, bad actors have the distinction of being called ‘hams’ for many reasons scholars can’t agree on, actually! I’m sure you all know Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, right? Luckily, I know it pretty well myself! As such a popular role, it attracted a lot of crappy actors! Although, the term wasn’t popularized until the 1800s…”

Yukiko laughed lightly. “How funny. I didn’t know it was so contested. You know a lot, Tsuna-kun. Thank you.”

He zoned out for most of the remainder of the day, wondering why they had bothered to come to school in person when Reborn hadn’t been spotted in days, and gratefully packed up his things to leave when the final bell went.

Unfortunately, Morooka showed up to ruin his afternoon. “Hey, Dojima-kun! Did you know this week is health week? And you’re not part of the Student Health Association! In other words, you’re a lazy bum! I hate lazy, good-for-nothing kids like you! So I’m signing you up to take the place of a sick member!”

“That’s not fair,” commented Chie.

“Quiet, you!” Morooka shot back. “I don’t know what school’s like for you big city kids, but here, it’s every student’s duty to pitch in! Don’t tell me you’re not enough of a man to do something this easy.”

Tsuna shrugged. “Whatever. Where?”

“Straight to the infirmary, right now! They should be expecting you, since I already told them you’d do it. Thank me!” He stomped off.

“Uh, good luck?” Chie offered.

“It’ll be fine,” he said. “It just means my plans for the afternoon are shot to hell.”

“Oh, Tsuna-kun, was it?” one of the girls down there said. “The transfer student, right…? Did you get hurt or something?”

‘So much for Morooka mentioning the substitution.’ He shook his head. “Morooka-sensei sent me down to fill in today for the sick member.”

“Thank goodness. We were running low on people. We need to check around the school to see if anyone needs help, but someone has to stay and watch this room. Would you mind staying here and dealing with anyone who stops by? … No touching the medicine, of course. If someone shows up who’s hurt, use the first aid kit. The only other things you’d have to worry about are salesmen and phone calls. They’re pretty uncommon, though.”

He nodded and watched as they left, then settled in with a book to pass the time. About an hour in the door opened and a man entered. He was dressed in a suit and carried a briefcase, looking like an average salaryman.

“Hello, I’m Kitao from Santo Pharmaceuticals. Hm, there aren’t any adults here? Could you deliver a message for me, then?”

Tsuna nodded.

“Your school placed an order for gauze, but I need to know if the order can wait until the month after next. Give my regards to your sensei.” He reversed and exited, the door shutting softly behind him.

He went back to his book, wondering why it would take an extra two months to deliver a damn gauze order, and was interrupted again by the Student Health Association members returning.

“Thanks for your help,” the same girl said. “Anything happen?”

“Kitao-san from Santo Pharmaceuticals stopped by. He inquired as to whether the gauze order can wait until the month after next.”

“Huh, okay,” she said, then got on the phone. A minute later she hung up. “All right, let’s discuss what we found while we went around the school. Group one…? Oh, that’s right. You went alone.”

One of the boys nodded. “Yeah, since Konishi isn’t here.”

“Oh, yeah, Konishi-kun… He can’t help it, after what happened… Yeah, poor thing. So you just have to do his part, too.”

The boy was about to respond when the door opened again, revealing a male student with light hair. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

“N-No, it’s okay! You don’t have to come, really. Helping out at your parents’ store is hard work, right? We have a replacement today, so don’t worry.”

“…I don’t want to be the only one…”

“Well, you can help Tsuna-kun clean up this room, then. We’ll go report to the teacher, so why don’t you clean a little and go home, okay? W-Well, good-bye!”

The other students bailed like cowards and left Tsuna with the newcomer. Odds were, with a family name of Konishi, he was the younger brother of the deceased Saki.

“…I’m Konishi… A first year.”

‘Because I couldn’t see that indicated on your collar,’ he thought.

“You knew Konishi Saki? I’m her brother. You’re friends with … Hanamura, right? I hate him… And you, too. Can I go home now…?”

The compassionate part of him wanted to be understanding. The kid _had_ recently lost his sister. The asshole part of him wanted to be, well, an asshole. So he shrugged. “I don’t care either way. I’m only filling in for today. You want to leave, then go.”

The blank look on the kid’s face flickered for a moment, then he said, “Good-bye.” He turned around and left.

Tsuna rolled his eyes and quickly cleaned up, then booked it out of the school.

He was accosted once he got home by his uncle, who was seated at the kitchen table reading a newspaper. “Hey, Tsuna-kun… How’s it going?” He paused, his brow furrowing. “Oh, er… Well, maybe that wasn’t the right line…” He paused again. “I don’t consider myself an old man yet, but when it comes to high schoolers… I don’t know what to talk about.”

Tsuna heaved an inward sigh and took a seat, trying to look receptive.

“You’re that bored? So… What have you been doing after school?”

“Today I filled in for a sick member of the Student Health Association.”

“Oh, really…? You’re pretty responsible for your age. …Whoops, this is turning into an interrogation, isn’t it? But it’s not as if we have much in common … except for the murders.”

Tsuna blinked. “Tell me about yourself.”

Dojima looked confused. “About me? You’re interested in the strangest things…” After a shrug he continued, “It’s just what it seems. I’m a simple country detective living with my daughter. There’s nothing about that to interest a high school kid… But you know, it really is good to have you around the house. I didn’t think Nanako would be so happy… Hell, I’m already tired of hearing about ‘onii-san’ this and ‘onii-san’ that. You’re more like a very young brother to me than a son.”

Tsuna about hurt himself keeping in the hysterical laughter that comment provoked. “That’s … stretching it.”

“What!? You’re saying you can see the years on my face? What a punk! Treating a regular guy like an old man!” Dojima laughed cheerfully, so at least he wasn’t offended. “I think it’s been a while since I’ve laughed this much.”

Tsuna smiled a bit lopsidedly. “I meant more like things such as if you like music, and what kind, or books. That sort of thing.”

“Oh! Well…”

A short time later a rank message flashed by, right about the same time Nanako appeared looking to help with dinner.

####  09 June 2011, Thursday

On their way to sell off loot at Daidara’s after a stint on the other side they ran into, of all people, Namatame Taro. He was dressed in black trousers and a white button-up shirt. “I was fired from work in spring,” the man said (presumably because Tsuna’s face just screamed, ‘I want to hear your life story, please tell me now’). “But I’m helping with the family business now. The life here is nice…”

Tsuna smiled serenely, nodded, and kept right on going. Daidara bought a whole lot of loot off them, they got upgraded weaponry, and he spent the remainder of the afternoon playing various games with his family. Their UNO deck got quite a workout.

“So we still don’t know shit and all we can do is wait around for the next victim,” Hayato said.

“Nor do we know who’s been shuffling us,” Chikusa said mildly.

Tsuna and Sin exchanged a look.

Naturally, his Mists caught it and eyed them both curiously and demandingly.

Tsuna shrugged. “It’s just a guess.”

Daemon rolled his eyes. “No stalling, Heul darling.”

“…I can’t help but wonder if it’s Byakuran. One of them, anyway. One who succeeded in that quest to remake the world, then got bored when he realized what a drag it was to be emperor of the world, started poking around in other dimensions…”

“And latched onto you, by coincidence or otherwise,” Daemon said.

“And decided to meddle when he saw you about to die,” Xeul added.

“And thought up a new game,” Mukuro finished.

He shrugged again. “Something like that. It’s not like my intuition kicked in or anything. It’s just a guess.”

Chikusa adopted a thoughtful look. “Perhaps… Perhaps in a world where there was both flames and magic. I wondered at times, during your stint as Harry Potter, if it was possible, if enough belief was there, from enough people, if a magical could be essentially elevated to a god. If it had been a world like that one, and Byakuran succeeded and was also magical…”

“Huh. Well, there were those pagan gods in that one world,” he said.

“The one we dubbed Supernatural,” Mukuro said with a nod. He hummed. “It does make you wonder. So much in mythology is real, depending on where you are. It’s not outside reason that belief could effect such a result.”

Tsuna grimaced. “That kind of talk makes me think it’s possible for a Voldemort out there to achieve godhood if he managed to sway enough sheep.”

Everyone frowned. “Now there’s an unpleasant thought,” Sin said.

“Then again,” he said slowly, “even gods can be killed, if the myths are to be believed. We did see evidence in Supernatural that those Winchester brothers were capable of offing a pagan.”

“They used the Colt,” Ken objected.

“They still killed a god,” Xeul said. “The fact that a human figured out, in part, how to make more bullets for the thing…”

“I should think that had more to do with the Christian god allowing it to work,” Chikusa said. “There was all that talk about how he bunked off to masquerade as a human because his hands were tied. Free will and all that.”

“And it was free will and necessity that drove Singer to make more bullets.”

“That he was attempting to actively change his situation would have made the difference, I suppose, in getting it to work, along with the holy oil.”

“Which they needed the help of an angel to acquire,” Daemon said. “Still… A lack of followers or indifferent worshipers probably helps to account for any weakness in a pagan god, and a jumped-up Voldemort would count as one.”

“All the more reason to wipe any out as quickly as possible if we’re dumped into another Harry Potter world,” he said.

“Still, Byakuran…” Ken shook his head and fidgeted with the cards in his hands.

“Just a guess. For all we know it’s not. It could be a primal force. It could be a god using me as their mortal hand. Even if it was the Christian god, it’d still count as him not directly interfering beyond having chosen me as a hand, and probably passing on the shuffling to one of his subordinates or something. I still have the free will to do as I please.”

The others looked skeptical at that. “Honestly, I think that’s way more of a stretch than an elevated Byakuran,” Sin said. “Though I could see the Christian god keeping an eye on you, out of curiosity, if nothing else. We go against His commandments all the time, though never against innocents unless…”

“We did essentially kill a bunch of innocent children,” Hayato said. “There’s no getting around that.”

Tsuna sighed. He did regret that and probably always would. “If we get stuck in a Harry Potter world again, we should figure out now how we’d deal with that. We can’t do that again. Maybe coming in at five years old would give us enough time to figure out how to bamboozle whatever it is they use to find students. We all have magic now, so it’s not as if we’d need to take over the lives of innocent magical children.”

“But I can’t see us possessing magical adults, either,” Daemon said. “Everyone has their own unique signature. We can alter those, obviously, but we’d still have to figure out how to fix things so we could attend with you. And that’s assuming you ended up as Harry Potter again.”

His nose scrunched up in distaste. “At least with me being that personage, the money doesn’t go to a bunch of glory-seeking sycophants, goblins, or the Ministry coffers, and Harry Potter isn’t brainwashed into being everyone’s hero and an owned pet in a gilded cage. I could see which way the wind was blowing, certainly. There’d be only so much we could do as others. Sure, we could get the kid to trust us just by dealing with the zoo, but…”

Sin shrugged. “Raise the kid right, he’d be eagle-eyed for any attempts like that, not to mention suspicious, paranoid, and checking everything and anything for spells and potions. You know…”

“What?”

“It’s more than a little odd that in all the lives you’ve lived, you only ever encountered Byakuran that once, and it wasn’t directly. Not once has he popped up.”

A look went around before Chikusa said, “Do you think perhaps the local Byakuran serves as the eyes of the Shuffler?”

“If he really is the Great Shuffler, it’d make sense. And given that we know in some dimensions there are gods, it wouldn’t be outside reason that we’re dealing with one here, and that’s why we’re so blinded.”

“Whatever it was, it didn’t have a perfect defense,” Tsuna reminded them. “That one dream I had, where when I concentrated I could see a bit more clearly. Part of the answer is staring us right in the face, and yet we somehow can’t figure out what we need to do to see. I know we’re not this stupid, not a chance in hell. So something powerful enough has blinders on us.”

“Guess we can’t say we’re powerful enough yet from all this augmentation to be godly, then,” Sin said with a faint smile. “Which also secures the belief that Kawahira was just a very powerful being, but not godly in power, not if we can fuck him up.”

“Cheers,” he said.

His uncle was lying in wait again, which Tsuna found confusing.

“I heard something at the station the other day,” Dojima opened with. “About… Well… I heard you guys hang out at Junes pretty often. Nothing wrong with that, of course. The question is … why do you make so many trips to the electronics department?”

Tsuna let his honest confusion display on his face. “We went there several times when I was looking to buy a new television, yeah. We’ve gone back to buy games or movies. Other than that it’s mostly the weekly shopping. I don’t—”

He was saved when Nanako appeared out of nowhere and frowned cutely. “Daaaaaaad….”

Dojima looked hunted for a split second. “Or, er, this isn’t what you think. I’m not interrogating him…”

Nanako continued to frown. “It’s not fair. You’re always talking with onii-san.”

“…What?”

“I mean… Today, you’re home, but…”

“…I always talk with you,” Dojima said unconvincingly.

“When is always?” she persisted. Tsuna had to give the girl points for persistence and not being afraid to dive into an uncomfortable topic of conversation. “I… I wanna … talk…” Unfortunately, she was clearly tired, as she began to rub her eyes sleepily.

Dojima sighed. “It’s bedtime for you already, it seems. Go to sleep. I’ll play with you … next time.”

Nanako shot him a skeptical look. “You promised,” she said softly, then headed off to her room.

“ ‘When is always,’ huh?” Dojima muttered.

Tsuna found it deeply disturbing that he was a better father than her actual father. “Are you not good with kids…?”

“No… It’s not that. I mean, I am bad with kids, but that’s not the problem,” he said bitterly. “Truth is, I mostly left raising her up to my wife, her mother… So… I don’t really know how to approach her. Plus… I’m not fit to be family.”

His brow went up slowly. Since slapping the taste of his uncle’s mouth was not an option, he said, “Fit or not, you’re her family.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Dojima said wryly. “You think just being related by blood makes you ‘family’? …That’s not the case.”

‘I feel so fucking old right now,’ he thought. ‘This man…’

A rank message flashed up as his uncle continued, “Oh, sorry. You didn’t need to hear about that. Get some sleep. Night.”

Tsuna nodded. “Good night.” He headed to his room and flopped onto his futon.

A window opened a second later, so he sat up and flipped open his laptop so he could pretend he was using Skype or something.

Daemon was shaking his head the whole time. “It’s amazing how easily he misunderstands,” he said in Italian. “If anyone would get that family doesn’t end with blood, it’s you.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “I feel ancient all of a sudden. I swear, for having such shit parents myself, I’m somehow a better parent than any of them. I have to assume in this case it’s a combination of who he is, plus the circumstances of his wife’s death. Something like that.”

“We can check if you like,” his brother offered.

He sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know. Not sure I want to find out that he really is just as—”

“Maybe I’ll check, and maybe I’ll keep it to myself. Maybe I won’t.”

“It’s really kind of hard to give a fuck, but at the same time I do.”

“It’s not that late. Why don’t you throw up a barrier and come see us. We can keep a window open just in case.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” he said.

####  10 June 2011, Friday

Because Reborn had been spotted still flitting around town, they went into school personally. Tsuna mostly zoned out until lunch, at which point the bentos came out. Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko joined them, possibly because they were the most interesting thing in Inaba of late.

“Oooh, these instant noodles really hit the spot,” Chie said, happily diving in for more.

Tsuna wrinkled his nose. He was not alone in that.

“The rainy season’s just about here,” Yukiko commented.

“Isn’t it a little early?” Yosuke asked between bites of his own instant noodles.

“Once it starts, it’ll be raining every night.”

“Crap,” Yosuke said. “And we have the school campout coming up soon.”

“Why are you so excited about that?” Chie asked.

“That’s right, it’ll be the first time for you,” Yukiko said, then looked at the Samsara four. “And you, as well.”

“You realize the only purpose of the school campout is to ‘develop a love for one’s hometown in young people’, right?”

“Yeah, they tell us that upfront,” Yosuke replied. “So?”

Chie grimaced. “Well, you see, the way we supposedly develop that love is by picking up trash off the mountain.”

“P-Picking up trash?” Yosuke scowled. “ ‘Develop a love’ my ass! That’s slave labor!”

“Well, the night’s kinda fun,” Chie allowed. “We cook our own meals with mess kits and sleep in tents.”

“We’re in a group, though I can’t remember who our fourth is,” Yukiko said. “A guy, I suppose, to share a tent with you.”

Tsuna eyed Mukuro, who promptly flame-wrote: We four are in a group. I made sure of it.

Yosuke sighed dramatically. “I guess that means all four of us aren’t in the same tent.”

“You wish! Guys and girls sleep in different tents! I’m warning you,” Chie said. “If you leave your tent at night, you’ll be expelled on the spot.”

“This gets worse and worse. I thought it was gonna be fun. Cleaning up trash? Not being able to do anything at night?”

“It’s only for one night,” Yukiko said. “We disband before noon the next day. It doesn’t last very long.”

Chie perked up. “Oh, that’s right. We did have some fun at the river before going home last year.”

“They let you go swimming,” Yosuke half-asked, half-stated.

“I think so…? There’s always someone who takes a dip, though we didn’t.”

“I see… So the river is safe to swim in…”

As lunch came to a close he flame-wrote: We need to know what these mess kits are she’s talking about. I’d rather not cook with substandard ingredients.

Mukuro nodded.

On the way home they swung by Junes to see if anything interesting was available in the way of games or movies, and noticed Adachi in the foyer.

“Hm?” Adachi said on spotting Tsuna. “Oh, it’s you. I, uh, was buying a toy—on my break. This magic set was on sale, you see. It was so cheap, I couldn’t resist it! You know how it is.”

A serene smile came to his face as he nodded, then he continued on his way.

“So now we know who the snitch is,” Sin said once the lift doors closed.

“Dude doesn’t strike me as being all that competent,” Hayato opined. “Throwing up on seeing a dead body, buying magic sets…?”

“Maybe that’s why he was sent here from the city,” Mukuro said. “He was only good enough to function in a backwater like Inaba.”

“I guess.”

They didn’t find anything new during their browse, so they left and headed to the shrine to see if the fox had anything new. The ema he was handed read: _I’m scared of them, but I must get used to them. I don’t even want to write the word… C A T S._

Tsuna rolled his eyes, nodded at the fox, and exited through the gate. “Someone deathly afraid of cats. Lemme see…” His intuition led him to the flood plain.

“Miyoko-san…” The man suddenly noticed him and fidgeted. “…Oh, d-did you hear that?” He laughed nervously. “Well… I-It’s okay, right!? People have the right to think of their beloved!” He sighed and said, “I’m getting married… Dammit… Everything would be great if it wasn’t for him… That horrendous furball… The c— Argh! I’m scared! I can’t even say it! Those fanged demons are terrifying!”

Tsuna glanced over at Mukuro and flame-wrote: Will you quickly check to see if that cat that hangs around my uncle’s house is there? As soon as his Mist nodded he said, “Is it a cat?”

The man flailed. “D-Don’t say the ‘c-word’! The meowing, and the whiskers, and the evil little claws! It’s all just so scary… Of all the pets, Miyoko-san wants to have a c-c-cat… She said we can’t get married if I won’t let her have one.” He flailed again. “Why must you put me through this horrible test, Miyoko-san!?”

Mukuro smirked. It’s there, and I’m keeping it there, just in case.

“I had a cat once,” he said. “It was very sweet, loved to cuddle.”

“S-Stop it! Stop that right now! What do you want? Money!? I’ll give you money, just get away from meeeeee!!”

Tsuna smiled serenely. “Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you one. It’s the neighbor’s cat, I think. She’s very friendly.”

The man started trembling and shaking his head, but Mukuro was having none of that, clearly, as the man said, “Maybe just a peek…?”

“It’s this way,” he said, then started off.

Shortly thereafter they were outside the Dojima house. The poor man took one look at the animal and started flailing again. “Cat! CAT! CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT! It’s watching me! It’s waiting for me to turn around! It’s coming for me! It’s gonna jump on me! I’m gonna DIEEEEEE! B-But, I-I’m a man… I-I-I’m prepared for death… A-All right… All riiight… Let me t-t-touch you…”

The cat, being quite friendly, gave the man’s hand a little lick. “It’s eating meeeee!” he screamed, then ran off in a panic.

Tsuna heaved a sigh. “I’ll find him another day and try again, I guess.”

“Why do people die?” Nanako asked him after dinner.

Tsuna blinked at her and tried to think of how best to explain it. “Well, to start with, everyone dies at some point, it’s just a question of why. Old age is one. People aren’t meant to live forever, and our bodies start to wear out. Accidents happen, too. Maybe someone looks down or away at just the wrong moment, and … something bad happens. There are also bad people out there. And illness. Even with the medicine we have in this day and age, not everyone can be cured.”

“I see… This is hard… But I get it! Thank you, onii-san!” Nanako nodded cheerfully.

“…Is there anything else?” he probed.

“Well, um… Oh, there is! What happens to a person … when they die?”

‘Lord love a duck, how do I—?’ “They go to heaven,” he settled on. He certainly hoped there was some kind of afterlife. Heaven, or a transcendent place, something like Timeheart maybe. There was in worlds with magicals. He assumed the stone would work in any dimension, so…

Nanako smiled happily. “So, it is true. Mommy went to heaven. …Oh, yeah, I saw this on the news: ‘Robbery at the post office’. …Why do people do bad things?”

“I don’t know,” he said, presuming that such a young and innocent child would never understand.

“I see… You’re not a bad person, so I guess you wouldn’t know.” For some reason she looked relieved. “But if there were no bad people, Dad would be home a lot more. Last year, there weren’t many crimes, so Dad was here a lot. He used to pick me up from kindergarten. …Are bad people more important to Dad than I am?”

Tsuna shook his head. “No. His job is to protect you, and everyone else.”

“…I don’t get it.” She sighed faintly after a moment, as a rank message flashed by him. “Let’s talk about something else, onii-san.”


	9. λ21: 09: 11-23 June 2011

## λ21  
09: 11-23 June 2011

####  11 June 2011, Saturday

Yukiko sidled up to him after the half day with that look on her face. “Um…”

“Yes?” he said, tilting his head to the side.

“Would you … be willing to taste test something for me?” she asked after a long silence.

“Sure,” he said easily.

She smiled in relief and nodded. They ended up at the covered picnic table at the flood plain, where she handed over a bento box. “I think it came out well, so I packed it up. Try it out.”

He removed the cover and set it aside after taking the hashi clipped to the underside of the lid, then examined the contents of the box. It all looked perfectly normal, but there was an unusually pungent smell arising from it, which boded badly.

He started with what looked like tamagoyaki. A half second into biting into a piece he paused in dismay. There was something inside much too hard to bite, it smelt burnt (somehow, as it didn’t look burnt), and for all that the rest of it had the right texture, it also tasted a bit raw.

“…You’re not going to tell me how delicious that was, are you,” she said sadly.

He shook his head. “If you like, I can walk you through making this the next time we can both spare the time,” he offered. “I don’t mind.”

“I-I suppose… Thank you.”

“What are you doing?”

How Nanako kept sneaking up on him was a mystery.

“Ah, Nanako-chan,” Yukiko said. “Well, I was just having him try the bento I made…”

Nanako perked up. “Oooh, I want some!”

Yukiko shook her head. “I-I’m sorry, but I can’t let you have any. It’s not good…”

“Oh.” Nanako frowned cutely. “If you make a good one, will you let me have some then?”

“Huh…? S-Sure, if you want.”

His cousin smiled happily. “Yay! I’m rooting for you!”

“Nanako-chan… Thank you. I’ll do my best, okay?”

Nanako nodded firmly. “I need to go now. I’m on my way to Mai-chan’s house. Bye!”

“Be careful,” Yukiko called after her, then looked at Tsuna. “Um… I’m sorry I dragged you here for this…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We can work on it next time, okay?”

She looked relieved to hear it again. “I’m glad to hear that. Well, I should be going. There’s always something to do at the inn.” She got up, smoothed her skirt down, accepted the box back from him, then headed off as another rank message flashed up.

His friends appeared out of nowhere and rejoined him. “That poor girl,” Sin said.

“Some people just never do get the hang of cooking,” he replied.

“Since we’re here, how about we do some fishing?” Hayato suggested.

“All right. You guys can have fish for dinner.”

####  12 June 2011, Sunday

“I really wish he’d either leave or get around to bothering us again,” he said as he exited the house after unloading and putting away the shopping to rejoin Sin.

“He is being a bit … odd,” Sin replied, then paused. “I think someone would like to spend some time with you, tesoro.”

He glanced around and noticed Kanji hovering nearby. “Yeah. You don’t mind?”

Sin scoffed. “I had you most of last night. I’m not gonna flake out on the foundation we built. So go give the kid some therapy and I’ll see you later.”

Tsuna got a quick kiss before Sin sauntered off, at which point he strolled over to Kanji and smiled. “Hey.”

“Uh, hi. Yeah.”

“You want to go get lunch or something?”

“Ah, yeah? We could, uh, go to that place near Ma’s…?”

“The Chinese diner, yeah. Sure, let’s go.”

“Man, I’m starving for some Chinese,” Kanji said enthusiastically once they were seated. “But… If I eat and then go home, I can’t finish all of Ma’s food. She serves so much you’d think I have five brothers. She’s tryin’ to make my stomach burst.”

Tsuna snickered and gave his order when the old man who ran the place paused in front of them.

“Aren’t you Tatsumi Kanji?” said a man who had just entered. “What are you doing here?”

Kanji looked at the guy as if he was mental. “Can’t you tell? Hey, you’re a cop. What do you mean, what am I doing?”

“Just what I said. There’s been quite a commotion around here lately.”

“So now eatin’ out’s a crime? Maybe if you did your job, things’d get quieter, huh?”

The officer started to sweat, which made Tsuna want to roll his eyes in exasperation over the (lack of) quality of Inaba’s police force. “Y-You need to fix that attitude… Oh well, just don’t pull anything, got it? I’m gonna eat somewhere else,” he said with a sigh, then left.

“Asshole,” Kanji said roughly. “The cops’re always like that. Soon as they spot me it’s, ‘Whaddaya doin’?’ and ‘You look suspicious,’ and alla that bullshit. Meh, I’m used to it. Sorry for gettin’ you mixed up in this, senpai. I really am just a troublemaker. Ma’s always apologizing for me. She’s been sprouting more and more white hairs…”

“She knows why you run those guys off, but have you ever apologized to her?”

“I-It’s just kinda awkward… Filial piety, right? I don’t really know what to do…”

“I suppose most people would call in a noise complaint to the police. No idea how well they’d respond to that,” he said. “I mean, the town I lived in was fairly quiet. Well, there was that yakuza group in town, but they kept trying to convince people they were a helpful organization.”

Kanji shot him a wide-eyed look. “You had yakuza in town?”

He nodded. “No idea why, either. It’s not a tourist town and it’s not much bigger than Inaba, really. Why they’d bother at all, I just don’t know. Well, let me amend what I said. I mentioned that one guy the other day, the one who likes to bite people to death, as he puts it. Maybe he was the reason why the town was so quiet and the yakuza so inoffensive. But I imagine there’s not a lot of people who can get away with what he does and not be constantly harassed by the cops.” Tsuna shrugged. “Apologize to your mother, and then start calling the police every damn time those hooligans start making noise at night?”

“…Okay. Yeah.” A rank message flashed by as Kanji turned to the kitchen area behind the counter. “Hey, Chief, the food ready yet?”

“Huh? You ordered something, Kan-chan?”

Kanji half stood up. “I told you not to call me Kan-chan! And I did order: liver-leek stir fry and pot stickers! Tch! I’m gonna tear your store apart so fast you won’t have time to file for insurance! Oh, uh, well… I’m gonna tear it apart and rebuild it twice as good! I-I’m gonna _renovate_ your ass!”

The owner looked their way with a bland expression. “Right. Sounds good to me.”

Having nothing better to do after dinner was taken care of (and no sign of his uncle anywhere, not that that was at all uncommon), Tsuna decided to watch some TV with his cousin. She had decided on a documentary for some reason, about a young man searching for his real father.

“Real … father… What do they mean by ‘real’?”

‘And now we’re back into shading the truth for a child too young to honestly understand,’ he thought. “A person you love a lot.”

“Oh, okay… Then you’re my real onii-san,” she said happily, which made his heart melt just a little, not to mention weigh down with guilt for his eventual, hilariously stupid death. “And Dad’s my real father! …But I don’t think Dad really loves me. Maybe… Maybe I’m not ‘real’ to him? Daddy doesn’t come home because I’m not his ‘real’ daughter?”

‘This family is so fucked up. He has no idea how much pain he puts her through.’ Tsuna shook his head. “Did he say that?” he asked pointedly.

Nanako shook her head. “But… Mom… Why’d she leave me? When Mom was here, we all went out together… We picked flowers at Samegawa…”

He listened while she talked, not saying any of a dozen or so things he wanted to say. Not so much to her as to Dojima. Nanako would probably misinterpret what he had to say and assume guilt for all of it. His uncle seemed to have no clue that he wasn’t the only one in pain (though Tsuna did not attribute that to narcissism as he might with his own father), and his avoidance of Nanako made him blind to her feelings and questions. The cousin who’d only recently moved into the house should _not_ be the one dealing with any of this.

Somewhere in there a rank message flashed by, so he at least knew he was helping her in some way.

“Hey… Onii-san…”

“It’s getting close to your bedtime, but I think we can talk a little longer,” he said conspiratorially.

Nanako beamed. “Um… Um… Let’s play the word game! Then we’ll start with … ‘w’ from ‘word’! W… W… Worm!”

####  13 June 2011, Monday

Aside from him visiting the Velvet Room after school to do some maintenance and fill a few of Margaret’s requests, nothing much happened on Monday. Tsuna did feel a nebulous something ratchet up a notch or two, so he warned the others that it was that much more likely Reborn would finally poke his head out and pester them again, very soon.

####  14 June 2011, Tuesday

“You’re a ghost,” Reborn said bluntly. “You all are, except Dojima here.”

Tsuna slipped on a serene smile and enjoyed the eye twitch that resulted, while Sin affected to look confused.

“A ghost?” Sin said, then patted himself down. “I certainly don’t feel like one. Tesoro, you can feel me, right?”

“Absolutely, schatz, on a regular basis.”

Reborn muttered something uncomplimentary about teenagers and their hormones. “Ghosts that, surprisingly enough, have been best friends with Dojima here, from around age five. You all just … appeared … out of nowhere. Your appearance isn’t some…”

Sin smiled toothily.

Tsuna assumed he trailed off because he’d thought better of even hinting at flames, Mist or otherwise, to two young men who may not have any clue about them. Reborn wasn’t one to break Omertà, after all. Without knowing that they had flames _and_ were active (because Tsuna didn’t doubt for a moment that Reborn had some or all of their flame-types pegged), Reborn had to pussyfoot around the issue. If they were active he could throw his weight around as the world’s greatest hitman and pull rank.

Or rather, attempt to. Samsara would be more inclined to laugh at the man for attempting that than to troll him with a faked response. Of course, everyone but Tsuna’s appearance was faked, it was simply that Reborn couldn’t see past the illusions, never mind sense them in the first place. They were just too augmented.

Tsuna suddenly had a thought and tossed up some flame-writing for the others, those present and those inevitably watching. Maybe a clone with Colonnello’s appearance that starts flirting with Reborn?

Mukuro turned away abruptly, so he was probably having trouble controlling his expression. Hayato’s face was so blank he could be a brand new canvas.

Have we mentioned recently that we love you, Heul? came a response from the watchers at the house.

Reborn’s gaze shifted between the two of them. Tsuna because he was the leader, and Sin because he was Reborn’s younger twin in looks. Mukuro and Hayato? Pfft. They were cardboard cutouts as far as Reborn was concerned, other than that they were “ghosts”.

“I have yet to see any evidence you two can even cook,” Reborn said accusingly. “That being so, your thoughts on opening a café seem … naïve, at best.”

Tsuna wanted badly to smirk. Instead, his serene smile widened slightly. “Coming to conclusions without having all the information? How shortsighted of you, Ki-san, so quick to judge.”

“And you’re going to change my mind, I suppose?” Reborn asked casually, as if he wasn’t angling to make excuses to spend time around his younger twin.

“We could,” Tsuna said. “You are challenging our skill, after all.” He considered calling Reborn out on his stalker behavior, but that would mess up the game they were playing. “Anything in particular you’ve been yearning for?” Leading questions, from him? No, sir.

Reborn got a familiar spark in his eyes, but all he said was, “Can you even do Italian or French, or would it have to be Japanese?”

Tsuna shrugged. “I can do something from any of those three.”

“French, I think,” Reborn said. “You can surprise me.”

He nodded. “How about Sunday? We have a mandatory school trip, but that only covers Friday and Saturday. Sunday is mostly open. I could see you arriving at one, serving by 1.15, a three-course meal.”

Reborn’s brow went up in skepticism. “All right. I’ll give you a chance to prove yourself. At the ghost house, I presume.”

Tsuna nodded again. “Be prepared to fall in love, Ki-san,” he said as a rank message flashed by.

“What do you plan to make?” Xeul asked.

“Eh… I figured soupe à l’oignon, boeuf bourguignon, and tarte tatin. It’ll mean stepping out to France to gather up the ingredients, and Sin and I may have to turn back an hour after doing the weekly shopping with Nanako-chan. We’d have to start prep no later than nine or nine-fifteen, since the boeuf bourguignon will take around four hours. It won’t hurt it to simmer a bit extra, so…”

“So we should mark one of the rooms as off-limits so you can safely use it to turn in,” Daemon said. “We can split the shopping, though, if you like. Just specify what alcohol you want for it. Xeul and I can take care of that ahead of time, assuming we don’t already have some stored.”

“He seems … almost suspicious,” Ken said. “Like he wants to believe you guys—or maybe all of us—are active.”

“I got that impression as well,” he said. “But he’s not willing to risk hinting too loudly, and I can’t say I blame him. He got his life back and I can’t imagine he wants to end up in Vendicare over moments of impatience due to this ‘you could be my son, but no way in hell did I slip up’ ringer of his.”

“And once again, you plan to seduce a Reborn with food,” Chikusa stated. “He is smart enough to sense the flames in the cooking.”

“It’s still not proof, though,” Hayato rebutted. “He can claim all he likes that there are flames in your cooking, but proof?”

“No, not proof,” Chikusa said. “But it will strengthen his idea that we have them. Unless he sees with his own eyes one of us—Heul or Sin more specifically—actively using flames, he’s got nothing but circumstantial evidence. However… It would further increase his suspicions regarding Sin. They’re already twins, Sin has Sun Flames…”

“He’s never gonna believe he messed up,” Ken said. “That’d be a serious hit to his pride.”

Sin nodded. “I was always incredibly careful whenever it came to amorous activities. I imagine pretty much every version of me out there is. It was bad enough having so many people after me, either because they wanted to annex me into their famiglia, their bed, because they were jealous of my skill or my looks… That shit makes a person super paranoid.”

Tsuna hummed to himself. And all it took for him was just being a troll and a good cook.

Sin side-eyed him. “None of that coffee for him.”

“Nope. That’s strictly for you, schatz. Given that you took it as a declaration of interest and/or love, I’m sure as fuck never making it for any alternate version of you.”

“Why am I suddenly imagining a Bianchi-style stalker Reborn?” Daemon mused.

Tsuna grimaced and immediately changed the subject. “Right, one thing I need to do early is make the beef stock, so—” He stopped when Xeul’s hand went up. “Okay, sorted. I think we can safely send in clones tomorrow and Thursday. We can spend some time on the other side if anyone is up for some violence. So long as I have time to make the stock before heading back to the Dojima house, it’ll work out.”

“Which reminds me,” Mukuro said. “We’ll have to do some shopping on Thursday after school hours, for that campout. I can only imagine Amagi’s mention of a mess kit meant the cookware and tools, not food, because according to what I learned while acquiring information, we need to bring our own food supplies.”

“I’ll grab the stuff you’ll need for stock tonight,” Daemon said. “It does take a while.”

“Mm, yeah,” he said. “At least six hours, if not longer, and then it has to chill for a good eight hours. I could do it tomorrow if we send in clones, and just freeze the results, since it’s only good for a few days. Or put it in stasis, whichever. Or do it Thursday and just keep it in the refrigerator. Any thoughts on what to cook at the campout?”

####  15 June 2011, Wednesday

After spending the morning hours wailing the tar out of Shadows for stress relief and profit, and a nice lunch, Tsuna went to go track down his current ema target. He found the man on the flood plain again.

“Y-You! You’re the one who tried to feed me to the cat! Oh, er, sorry… I just can’t stay calm when it comes to those damn cats. …I-I have an idea… Do you know what cats like to eat? If I can sneak up and slowly touch them while they’re chowing down on food, I’d be in control, right?”

‘Only if they don’t take offense and assume you’re trying to steal their food, and attack,’ he thought.

“B-But… To tell you the truth … I’m also … scared of fish! Y’know, those creepy eyes! All muddied! Looking this way! And those scales! U-Uhh… Is there some kind of cute fish?” The man sighed. “I guess it’s just a fact of life… There’s no such thing as a cute fish. That must be why they live in the water, away from human sight…”

Tsuna was at first confused when the man suddenly went blank on him, then realized one of his twins must have taken control of the guy. A moment later he saw: I turned back long enough to get a “cute” fish. You can pull it from the kitchen sink and see if he goes for it.

He opened a window long enough to acquire a reddish goldfish and held it up when he saw the man go back to normal. “How about this little fellow?”

“Wh-What is that!? I-It’s so cute! Give that to me! I’ll use it to ambush the cat!” The man yanked it out of his hand and dashed off toward the Dojima house.

‘He must really want to marry that woman,’ he thought as he followed in the man’s wake. The cat apparently had kittens as when he arrived the man was playing with all of them. Being kittens, they had very sharp teeth and claws, and the poor man was getting scratched all to hell, not that he seemed unhappy about it.

Having noticed him come into view the man said, “The red goldfish you gave me… Thanks to that these kitties are all over me! Ooh, these kittie-witties are soooo cute! The feeling of their soft fur is great! I almost want to get married more for the cat than Miyoko-san! Ooh, I want a kitty-kiss!”

Tsuna smiled and nodded. “I’m glad it worked out for you,” he said, then diverted off to the shrine to let the fox know the man would likely be by soon with an offering. There was not another one waiting so he wandered off to the Dojima house, passing the man still playing with the cats, to see if Nanako was home so they could spend some time together before starting dinner.

####  16 June 2011, Thursday

His morning was spent making homemade beef stock and playing various games with his loved ones. The stock was put in the refrigerator to chill, though one of them would have to keep skimming the fat off the top. The leftover beef was put into stasis for later use.

When the time came he, Hayato, Mukuro, and Sin swapped out with the clones in one of the school bathrooms and exited the building intent to do some shopping at Junes for the campout. They hadn’t come to a consensus on what to make, but would have to figure it out once they got there.

Also headed for Junes were Satonaka and Amagi. Apparently they had been nominated (or decided on their own) to do the cooking for their group. It reminded him he needed to make some time for Amagi to give her another cooking lesson after the failure of her bento offering.

“What do you put in curry again?” he overheard Chie asking her friend.

“Carrots, potatoes, onions … mushrooms, green peppers, and … radishes?”

“Are radishes … the same as turnips? Curry’s fine, right? It’s practically our national food.”

“We were going back and forth between ramen and curry, but I thought ramen might not be enough.”

Tsuna shared a look with his friends. “Ramen would be all right, yeah?” he said quietly and, once they nodded, started to gather up ingredients.

Chie hummed thoughtfully. “I wonder what kind of ingredients Yosuke likes. I get the feeling he’s real picky.”

“He’s on another floor, isn’t he? Do you want me to go ask?” Yukiko offered.

“Nah, no need. Plus, he said he needed to get ready for something.”

“Maybe we should get enough for them, too?” Mukuro muttered in Spanish.

Tsuna nodded and replied in kind. “I get the feeling their dish is going to be a disaster, so… Yeah, let’s be kind. We’ll get enough for eight to ten people.”

“…Hey, Chie. You use potato starch for curry, right?”

A sidelong look showed that Chie got a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. “O-Of course you do,” she said unconvincingly.

“Otherwise, the sauce wouldn’t thicken,” Yukiko said with a nod. “Then, we need potato starch and … some flour, too?”

“There are different kinds of flour,” Chie said a bit helplessly. “Which should we get? All-purpose? Whole wheat?”

Yukiko hummed. “Whole wheat sounds healthy. Let’s get that one. And … here they are! Chili peppers! It’s not curry if it isn’t spicy.”

“Oh well… Let’s just get everything that seems right. How about some kimchi, too? And some ground pepper!”

“There’s two kinds, though. Black and white.”

“Whoa! Way to go, Yukiko. The Amagi family sure knows their stuff! Let’s get both, just in case.”

“Oh yeah… We’ll need some special ingredients, too, to spice things up.”

“Hm, I remember seeing something on TV about that. I think it was … chocolate … coffee … yogurt… How about mint chocolate!? I love that stuff! I don’t like coffee that much, though. Oh, I can drink mocha, so let’s get that.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes in despair. Sure, things like coffee, chocolate, and yogurt were all good things to add to curry, but… Mint chocolate?

“What about some seafood?” he heard Yukiko suggest as Samsara began to move toward the meat department for some pork. “That should make the sauce taste better.”

Mukuro was shaking his head sadly. “We will definitely have to rescue that poor group once those two make a hash of their curry. It’s just as well we’re going with something else, so your curry doesn’t make them feel horrible in comparison.”

“It could be the subject of another cooking lesson, though,” Sin suggested.

He shrugged. “Perhaps. It’s not like it’s hard to make. You remember that one guy, right? Uh, Sakura-san? In Tokyo. He made a fantastic curry.”

Mukuro laughed creepily. “I’ll have to go acquire his recipe from him, then.”

Tsuna smiled fondly. “I wouldn’t say no to that.”

“Now remember, Nanako-chan. I have the school campout tomorrow, so I won’t be here to make dinner. I’ll be back sometime on Saturday. I was at Junes earlier to get stuff for the campout, so I picked up some pre-made meals for you and your dad, okay?”

Nanako pouted (presumably over not having been invited to the Junes trip) and nodded. “Okay, onii-san. Um…”

“What is it?” he asked.

“Don’t tell Dad, but…” She had a look on her face that reminded him of the times Lambo was about to cry.

“I won’t, I swear, not unless you tell me you’ve changed your mind.”

“O-Okay… They handed this out at school,” she said, taking what looked like a letter from her pocket. “They said to give it to our parents…”

Tsuna took it when offered and looked it over. Written on it was: Parent Survey Regarding Scheduling Of Parent-Teacher Interviews.

“They said to have our parents write down when they can visit the school. But Dad’s always working, so… He won’t be able to come, huh?”

“I’ll ask him with you if you want,” he offered.

Nanako brightened up. “Really? Thanks, onii-san! …I’ll give this to Dad. I’ll ask him to come… I’m glad I asked you!”

Tsuna smiled fondly as a rank message flashed by. He genuinely hoped she would grow up to be a fine young lady, despite the troubles in her life—and the eventual fall-out from when he died another hilariously stupid death.

“He’ll come, right? …Since he’s my ‘real’ Dad. Onii-san, did you have ‘Parent-Teacher Interviews’, too? Were you nervous?”

He shook his head. “Not that I remember… But it’s no big deal. I think they just talk about how you’re doing in school is all. I think interviews like that only last a few minutes.”

She nodded thoughtfully, though she still looked skeptical that her father would spare even a few minutes for it, then said, “Can we work on some dolls tonight, then?”

“Sure. You go grab your stuff and I’ll get the scissors and whatnot. We’ll work on them down here, okay?”

####  17 June 2011, Friday

After arriving at the mountain and being shown to their various temporary living quarters (meaning, they had to set up the provided tents before they could stash any gear) they were enjoined to spend the better part of the day on trash duty, with only a quick break for a school-provided lunch of rather bare-boned bentos.

By the time early evening rolled around most everyone was hungry and desperately wanting to get started on cooking dinner for themselves. The four of them worked together in harmony, putting together a large pot of shōyu ramen (Tsuna had started the broth earlier on the sly, and Daemon had come in to keep an eye on it, using Mist to keep away anyone nosy).

It was a bit rough working with such primitive implements, but he managed. Green onions, carrots, menma, nori, and boiled eggs were added, along with chāshū. Things went swimmingly for them, and bowls of it were served up, and rice, and they sat down at the picnic table behind their cooking station to eat.

To the side, at the next station and table over, was the group containing Amagi, Hanamura, and Satonaka. Either they never did have a fourth assigned to their group, or the person bailed on them. He didn’t consider it important enough to bother asking.

“Ugh, picking up all that trash was murder on my back,” Yosuke complained. “I can’t believe someone threw away an entire bike. Dammit, litterers should have to deal with their own garbage. Anyway, time for dinner! Man, I’m starvin’. Not that I expect much outta Chie, but Yukiko’s got the full tradition of the Amagi Inn behind her food! You know it’s gonna be out of this world! I can’t wait to dig in!”

‘That poor, deluded fool,’ he thought sadly, then enjoyed more of his ramen.

“Should we … taste this?” Yukiko asked hesitantly.

“Huh? O-Only if you do it first,” Chie replied.

“Oh man, here I come!” Yosuke enthused.

Chie looked his way nervously. “Uh, sorry for the wait. Um… We … put a lot of love into it…”

“Whoa, really?” Yosuke said as he served himself a plate and sat down. “That’s kinda clichéd, but still awesome! Okay then, chow time!”

The two girls watched in mutual trepidation as their classmate dove in, then winced when he started sputtering and fell off his seat.

“H-Hey…?” Chie said.

“What the hell is this!?” Yosuke bellowed. “I mean, what kinda—” He broke off to cough violently. “Curry’s supposed to be like ‘really spicy’ or ‘kinda mild’… This just stinks! And it’s gritty, too! It’s somehow both gritty and slimy… And it’s got squishy parts in it… It’s so frickin’ nasty I can’t swallow it!”

“Well, it just didn’t mix too well… But it does offer a wide variety of textures,” Chie defended.

“It’s nauseating!”

“C’mon, it’s not _that_ bad!” Chie said. “That’s just your opinion!”

“Have you even tasted this!?” Yosuke shot back. “What’re we gonna do? Our group’s the only one without food. I mean, if it was even slightly edible, that’d be one thing… But I’m not taking another bite of this Mystery Food X.”

“Something smells good!” Chie said suddenly, looking to the table on the other side, opposite of where Samsara was seated.

“H-Hey, Hanako-chan,” Yosuke said pitifully. “You … wouldn’t happen to have any extra curry left, huh? C’mon, give us some! We’re begging you! We’re starving to death here!”

Hanako, who could generously be described as full figured, shook her head resolutely. “No way. I’m on a diet right now, so this is all I made. It has to last me.”

“All that you made?” Chie said in disbelief. “It’s like a bucketful…”

Yosuke sighed. “I wonder if there’s any way we can get something delivered here.”

“But our cell phones don’t get service up here,” Yukiko pointed out.

At that point Tsuna cleared his throat loudly enough that all three swung around to look Samsara’s way. “We have extra. You’re welcome to have some. We made shōyu ramen with chāshū.”

“Oh man, you’re like a lifesaver, dude!” Yosuke said gratefully, then rushed over to serve himself. He took a seat at the table and dove in again. “Wow, this is awesome!”

That was taken as a reason to serve themselves for the girls, so they did, and also took seats.

“It’s very good,” Yukiko said to Tsuna, “but I kind of expected that from you.”

“Thank you,” he said simply. “I’m just glad now I went a bit overboard and made too much. I overestimated how hungry we’d be after today’s activities.”

“Overestimated?” Yosuke said. “I was starving to death! Can I have more, by the way? I’m still hungry.”

“Sure. Have as much as you want.”

It wasn’t much longer after that that Morooka-sensei barged by, yelling, “All right, back to your tents! Men’s tents are this way, and the girls’ tents are that way! Come on, people, look alive! Youngsters like yourselves should hurry up and get to bed after they eat! It’s now time for us teachers to have some boo—I mean, er, off to bed! Lights out!”

“It’s barely nine o’clock,” he said quietly. Still he got up so he could toss the disposable picnicware the school had provided. Between them, the girls, and Yosuke, the pot of ramen and accompanying rice were empty, so all they had to do was rinse everything. He assumed the teachers would handle packing everything up to be returned to the school.

Once that was complete they headed to their tent and settled in for a game of cards until they were tired enough to sleep. At one point they heard talking in the next tent over—apparently Kanji-kun had decided to bother Yosuke, but he stormed off a little bit later. Then rustling sounds and more conversation. It was low enough that he couldn’t make out what was going on over there, but at least two people had joined Yosuke in his tent.

“Listen up!” came the loud voice of Morooka-sensei from somewhere nearby. “Being insolent and being indecent are very different things!”

“It’s him! He’s outside!” was heard from the next tent over; Yosuke was clearly panicking. “H-Hey, turn the light off!”

“Are you in there!?” Morooka-sensei demanded. His voice was coming from off to the side, so perhaps he had seen the lantern light disappearing so suddenly and went to investigate Yosuke’s tent?

“We’re not here!” Yosuke called.

“Don’t get cute, Hanamura-kun! Shut up and go to sleep.” A yawn was heard, then the sound of footsteps. “Ugh, I think I had one too many. I’m so sleepy…”

“Fuck it, let’s try to sleep,” he said. “Hopefully they won’t keep us here for long in the morning. Maybe we can just break down the tent and fuck off back home.”

A message flashed up, proving that at least one twin was keeping an eye on them. Please remember to set up a bounding box, darling. It’s either that or we take turns being lookout.

“Right. I’ll do up a temporary anchor,” he replied.

####  18 June 2011, Saturday

The second they were given leave to go they quietly headed into the trees so they could step over to the Rokudo house.

“If we end up in a school situation like this again,” Sin said, “you guys are going to be Heul’s school mates, not us three.”

Ken scowled.

“We can’t do much of anything until this afternoon, due to the time difference,” he said. “We can always go back in. It might not be teaching us much, but every little bit pushes us forward.”

“And with Tatsumi out and the fog having lifted, we need to be watching for rain again, so we can check at midnight,” Chikusa said. “Well, also keeping an eye on the TV for any appearances. Blue-Hat might wrangle a way to an interview if they’ve managed to figure out the trigger.”

“True,” Hayato replied. “But it could be anyone, really. Whoever that reporter decides to ambush, or ‘interesting’ news about someone. There’s just no telling, with the exception of Blue-Hat buying a clue and volunteering as a sacrifice, even if she doesn’t have a damn clue what she’d be getting herself into.”

“If she’s that desperate to prove herself,” said Xeul, “we can almost bet it’ll happen. That is a mighty chip on her shoulder.”

“Well, let’s check our supplies to be sure we have enough, then head in.”

That afternoon, after a rousing time of beating the stuffing out of personifications of negative human emotions, Tsuna stepped over to France with Daemon and Sin to do a little shopping in anticipation of the next day’s I’ll-prove-to-you-I’m-an-excellent-cook lunch for Reborn’s sake. That it was just an excuse on Reborn’s part to finagle more time to study his younger twin would be politely ignored.

Reborn, in general, was like a dog with a bone when he got his teeth into something, and this mystery had to be the most interesting thing that had happened to him in decades aside from being cured. Interesting and weird, at any rate.

####  19 June 2011, Sunday

Tsuna and Sin turned back two hours after the weekly shopping, mostly so that Tsuna could make a proper breakfast for his family before starting in on lunch preparations. Sin lent a helping hand, both knowing it would affect the taste or perception of the dishes.

Oddly, no one else had been able to replicate the trick, but then no one else was all that keen on cooking. It was a nice thing to share with his lover, and he greatly appreciated that Sin had made the effort.

As if he’d heard it spoken aloud, Sin graced him with a warm smile, then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

It was still his “thing” to make sure his family was well fed whenever possible.

“And we love you for it, amongst other reasons,” Sin said.

Tsuna rolled his eyes fondly.

Reborn was very punctual, pressing the doorbell’s button sharp at one o’clock. He was invited in by the “man” of the house (Daemon in one of his disguises, though he didn’t look a damn thing like Sin, nor anyone else aside from his twin) and ushered into the sitting area.

He was promptly served oolong—the faint moue of distaste was expected and cherished—and Daemon sat there, twin at his side, looking for all the world like a parent who intended to interrogate the young man who came sniffing around his daughter.

The two of them were acting in concert, like the same person in two bodies, and Tsuna was amused to note that it was creeping Reborn out _just a little_. They blinked, sipped tea, and raised an eyebrow at the same time, as well as spoke as one.

Their questioning was subtle yet edged, a keen feather blade of inquisitiveness, and neither of them pretended that Reborn didn’t see right through it, but neither did they call attention to it. Reborn looked almost relieved when Tsuna wandered out, wiping his hands on his apron, and said, “If you would all come to the table…?”

He and Sin brought out the bowls of soup and served them, then took seats. Tsuna was at the head, as their Sky and leader, with Daemon to his right and Sin to his left. He sent an expectant look at Reborn, then picked up his soup spoon.

Shortly thereafter there was a slight sigh to be heard, and Reborn’s poker face had cracked slightly, though he was holding on to it admirably, for the most part. “This is acceptable,” he said, trying to downplay his reaction.

Tsuna smiled serenely and nodded. “I am pleased to hear that, Ki-san.” The man did not need to know that he had sourced everything he used for lunch directly from France, even the water. (Water was important.)

“So, how has school been,” Daemon asked, having clearly decided to continue the role of concerned parental figure.

Hayato scowled. “Too many fangirls.”

“The teachers at the school campout apparently got wasted after we were all sent to our tents,” Mukuro commented.

“Those two girls can’t cook to save their lives,” Tsuna added.

“And Sofue-sensei still thinks she’s from an ancient Egyptian dynasty given the way she continues to dress,” Sin said.

“Marvelous!” Daemon said happily.

Tsuna glanced at the clock before saying, “Nanako-chan was upset that I was away for that trip.”

Sin scoffed. “She had to eat a store-made bento for dinner. Of course she was upset.”

Tsuna grimaced. “I should have thought of something she could just reheat in a small pot. I’m afraid I was a little too busy feeling put out over learning that the school campout was an excuse for us to go pick up trash. Because clearly, hikers are incapable of being responsible people.”

Inane chatter filled the next few minutes as Tsuna and Sin finished their soup, then the two of them excused themselves to get the main course ready. By the time Hayato wandered in carrying all the soup bowls they were ready to start serving the boeuf bourguignon. They helped Hayato unburden, then loaded up and returned to the table.

Reborn was served first, of course. He had already sampled the dish when Tsuna sat back down, and looked up with a curiously even expression. “Also acceptable,” he said.

Tsuna smiled serenely. The gleam in Reborn’s eyes said it was more than acceptable. “So, Ki-san, why are you so interested in Sen? I mean, yes, there is something of a resemblance, but… Well.”

Reborn looked incredulous for a split second, then delayed responding by choosing to have a forkful of noodles dipped in broth. He delayed further by having some beef and carrot, and finally said, “A resemblance, yes.”

“They say everyone has a double somewhere,” Tsuna replied, carefully controlling his urge to roll his eyes so hard he got a headache. “You were just … lucky enough … to encounter one of yours.” On the one hand he was amused by Reborn’s persistence. On the other hand, it was kind of a drag having to deal with Arcobaleno in a life where had had expected to never need to deal with any beyond the requisite “cure”, and ninety-nine percent of that was done from behind a curtain of mystery. He was back to hoping the next life was a holiday.

He suddenly smiled. “Maybe you will meet a version of yourself from an alternate dimension.”

Hayato perked up and started nodding. “That’d be so cool!”

“Unless your alternate self is an asshole,” Mukuro said.

Daemon immediately frowned. “Language, Kuro-chan,” he chastised.

Mukuro glared his opinion of the diminutive and quirked his eyebrow in a “fuck you” gesture, which caused Daemon to smile placidly and dab at his mouth with his napkin in a “bite me” reply.

“Alternate dimensions?” Reborn said. “You watch a lot of sci-fi, do you?”

“There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” he replied, back to smiling serenely.

“There could be UMAs everywhere,” Hayato enthused. “You never know!”

Reborn looked, for one moment, as if he was going to ask for clarification, but clearly thought better of it when he resumed eating.

Hayato noticed and launched into a long-winded soliloquy about UMAs, which happily succeeded in making Reborn’s eye start to twitch. Always a plus. That carried them through to desert. Tsuna, Sin, and Mukuro got up to collect dishes, retreat to the kitchen to drop those off and pick up the tarte tatin, and serve.

Reborn, at that point predictably, said it was, “Acceptable.” The sigh of happiness that escaped him said otherwise. Tsuna was not the least bit surprised when a rank message flashed by, as if to prove the point that his cooking was the real deal and Reborn had acknowledged it, even if only to himself.

Reborn left shortly thereafter, looking both satisfied and determined.

“I swear,” he said with a sigh. “A part of me wants to just use Mist to redirect his attention. He’s always amusing, but…”

“But we expected to have a holiday from that lot this time,” Xeul said.

“We could always arrange a hit for him,” Chikusa suggested. “Something complicated.”

“We’ll check into it,” Daemon said, Xeul and Mukuro nodding in agreement.

Dojima was home for dinner, shockingly. They were seated at the table watching TV when an entertainment news show came on when his uncle switched the channel.

“That concludes Kujikawa Rise-san’s statement regarding her temporary leave of absence from the entertainment industry. We’re short on time, so if anyone has any remaining questions, we ask that you please keep them brief.”

“I’m Ishioka from Lady’s View,” said a reporter in the audience. “It says here that you’ll be recuperating—are you facing physical problems?”

Tsuna noted that Kujikawa looked tired.

“No, my health isn’t an issue—”

“Psychological problems, then?” the reporter rudely interrupted.

“Wha…?” Kujikawa looked bewildered by the abrupt and insensitive question.

“Rumor has it you’ll be staying with your relatives, but isn’t that in Inaba where the murders have been taking place?”

“Huh? Um…”

“Is it true that they run a traditional tofu shop? Will you be helping out with the family business?”

The spokesman from the agency frowned angrily. “No more questions! This press conference is over! Clear the way, please!”

“Is Rise-chan quitting her job on TV?” Nanako asked.

Dojima shrugged. “Who knows… But if this is her hometown, we’ll have to deal with everyone who’s trying to get a glimpse…”

The program switched from showing the spokesman and Kujikawa exiting to a commercial.

“I’m tired of diets! Enough with going to the gym! Good thing there’s something even I can handle!” chirped a bikini-wearing Rise.

“Quelorie Magic is made for those worried about their calorie intake and body fat. It’ll slim you down in no time!”

Tsuna had a vague memory of seeing the same or a similar advertisement on his way to Inaba.

“Kujikawa Rise, huh…?” Dojima said quietly. “The one good thing about this town was that it had nothing of note, and now we get all the buzz… What’s going on?”

“So, that happened,” he said, staring at the fake chat window overlaying his laptop.

“So we should find reasons to discreetly wander by Marukyu Tofu every so often,” Sin said, “because odds are, she’s the next target.”

“Or just station a window nearby, to keep an eye on things,” Mukuro said. “What we saw of the conference didn’t state when she’d be arriving.”

“I can’t imagine she’d delay getting here,” Ken said, “but who knows? No matter what I expect Inaba is going to be a bit busier for the near future.”

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “Keep an eye out. And it’s supposed to rain in a couple of days, so we’ll need to be checking that, too. Nothing to do but wait.”

####  20 June 2011, Monday

He was alerted that Yukiko wanted to talk, so he switched out with his clone and exited the school with her. She led them to Junes, to the food court, but bypassed the order counter and took a seat at one of the tables.

“Um… Notebooks, three colours of pens, a loose-leaf folder, labels at the stationary department… Then the furniture department. I want to look at the desks. Those and the lamps…”

He was mystified as to what she was up to. “What’s all this for?”

Yukiko giggled. “Studying! I’m thinking of studying seriously for a job license … though I haven’t decided on exactly which one I’ll pursue. But I was thinking of trying for all the ones I feel I can earn. I’ve started working at night, you see. Remember the job you told me about? Thanks to that, I have some money.”

“You mentioned design,” he started to say, but they were interrupted a man in a suit. He was accompanied by two others, but neither were as nicely dressed.

“Huh? Well, if it isn’t the manager of the Amagi Inn. Or should I say, manager-to-be.”

“…I see you haven’t gone home yet,” Yukiko said slowly.

“Well, I can’t very well go anywhere until the next bus or train departs. This really is the boonies. Stuck here with nothing to do… Man, the countryside is the dumps.”

“…I beg to differ,” Yukiko replied.

“Turning down sweet deals is part of the country life, too, is it?” The man laughed as he departed, though it did not sound very happy.

“Oh… I’m sorry. Those people are from some TV station. They wanted to cover the Amagi Inn…”

“I take it you said no.” Considering how rudely she had been treated the last time she was interviewed, he couldn’t say he would blame her for refusing.

“Yes,” she said, her cheeks tinting the red. She seemed more embarrassed than upset. “It’s a ‘news of the world’ show… It’s not real journalism. You know that our inn was associated with Yamano-san’s murder, right? They want to make a special called, ‘Hot Springs Getting Too Hot for the Amagis!?’ It was an abhorrent title, and Mother turned them away. But maybe she shouldn’t have declined… I mean… If it gets a bad reputation… We’d lose customers, and the inn really would close its doors. Then… Then I’d feel better about leaving.”

“Leaving, for real. Seriously?” He knew he had been just as self-centered the first few times around (not helped by the confusion, initially, and then the anger), but she seemed to be missing the part where a lot of people would lose their livelihood, and it could seriously impact their families.

“I’m serious,” she muttered. “But you’re right, there’s no real point in saying things like that. I’m going to leave under my own power. My life is in my hands now. And of course, I want to help everyone. You, too, for being such a patient listener.”

A rank message flashed by, showing she had come to some sort of resolution.

“W-Well, let’s go shopping. First is … the stationary department…”

He would have trotted out the potentially trite saying about not knowing what you have until its gone, but he just didn’t think that would go over well.

####  21 June 2011, Tuesday

Yosuke was making noises about needing a bit of help at Junes that afternoon and seemed a bit desperate, so Tsuna obligingly swapped with his clone and headed to the store with him.

“You’re such a good friend to me!” Yosuke said. “You’ve gotta help me! Just for today!”

“What exactly will I be helping with?”

“Restocking. It’s really simple.” Yosuke handed him an apron, pointed out the boxes, and they got to work, though Yosuke kept hawking goods to the customers in the area.

“Welcome, one and all! Choice salmon, ¥59 a slice, just as advertised! And while you’re at it, how about some cheese? Direct from Italy and just ¥298 for today only!” Yosuke turned toward him and said, “Oh, yeah, stock that shelf, too,” while pointing.

Tsuna labored on for several hours, realizing that aside from his job as a delivery man for an office supply store, he had never really held down a normal job in any of his lives. Samsara sort of counted, but that was more of a holiday than anything else.

Once the restocking was complete Yosuke slipped him ¥5,500 for his trouble and beelined for the food court to drop into a seat and slump. “Phew, I’m dead tired… They decided on the sale at the last minute, and Dad was bugging me to find helpers. I told him I didn’t have time for that, but he wasn’t listening. But hey, I’m glad you were there! Thanks.”

“No problem.” It wasn’t like a few hours of honest work would—he cut off the thought, just in case.

“You really are a good guy,” Yosuke said happily.

‘Oh, you have no idea,’ he thought as two teenage girls wandered by and paused.

“Oh, Hanamura-kun,” said the girl dressed rather gaudily. “What’s with the crowd today? It’s way busy. If I’d known, I woulda skipped out.”

“Please don’t,” Yosuke asked tiredly. “You got a bonus for today, right?”

The other girl tilted her nose into the air snootily. “Yeah, a whole ¥500. I’m trying to save up! Gimme a raise.”

Yosuke gave her a disbelieving look. “Well… I don’t think I can help you there.”

“What’s the point, then?” Snooty complained as she and Gaudy went to sit at a different table.

“At this rate, my graduation trip’ll be somewhere in Japan,” Gaudy whined. “Maybe I should ask my parents to pay for it.”

“Why don’t you find a guy to pay?”

Gaudy laughed. “Like Saki did?”

Yosuke frowned and bit his lip.

“Was it last year?” Snooty asked. “Saki’s elopement, I mean.”

“Yep. Apparently she got with a college guy who came home, and went off with him. But she came right back, saying she’d save money and leave on her own.”

“Huh? You mean she was dumped?”

“Who knows… She started working here to save money, didn’t she? You know us high school girls can make easy money if we really want to.”

The two continued to chatter on, but Yosuke seemed to have finally tuned them out.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s just hot air. I’m not letting them get to me,” Yosuke stated firmly, as if Konishi’s life had much of anything to do with him at all. “…It’s sad to be talked about like that, though. Surely someone can avenge Saki-senpai.”

“You’re right,” he said confidently, feeling more than a little embarrassed just being there and being reminded of how he used to moon around Kyoko like an idiot.

“I think it’s good you came along,” Yosuke said. “Because of you, I was able to make it this far.”

As the rank message flashed by, Tsuna had to wonder why that sounded so ominously like Yosuke had contemplated taking his own life.

When midnight neared he ended his game and shut the TV off. It was raining, after all, and he ought to go to bed soon anyway.

A second after the clock ticked over to midnight an image appeared. It was a girl. She had a twin tails hairstyle and wore a bikini. For some reason the camera kept zooming in on her chest and thighs.

“I’ll take Kujikawa Rise for two hundred,” Ken said.

“Considering that figure looks as if it was borrowed from that one commercial, yeah,” Hayato said.

“All right, well, the usual, then. No reason to get fussed. If she does end up inside, we’ll just save her like the others.”

####  22 June 2011, Wednesday

They made it a point to stroll through the shopping district after school, having swapped with the clones after so much gossip had been flung around about Kujikawa already being in town. There was a crowd outside Marukyu Tofu, to absolutely no one’s surprise.

Adachi was there, as well, directing traffic with a red baton.

“Did something happen?” Hayato asked the man as they got close enough.

“Oh, hello there. Ai yi yi… These gawkers keep streaming in with their cars, trying to park in the middle of the shopping district.”

Hayato affected to be clueless. “Why’s that?”

“Don’t you know? Kujikawa Rise’s here. Hey, did you see her already?? Is she there? Which is it?”

Tsuna crinkled his brow at the man’s questions. “The question is more why a detective is doing traffic control.”

“Oh… Uh, well… The Inaba Police Department isn’t that big, and we don’t have enough staff… Well, I still have work to do, so I’ll just get back to it,” Adachi said, then turned and headed into the tofu shop.

They continued on a ways farther, toward the shrine, and paused to look back, well out of anyone’s way. “That guy is just plain weird,” he said.

“Maybe the police force has a few brain cells between them and suspects she might be the next to mysteriously disappear,” Mukuro suggested sotto voce, “though Tatsumi was more of a blip than a sure thing to general knowledge.”

Dojima came striding down the street from the west, looking harassed. “All right, clear out,” he ordered loudly enough for even them to hear. “Coming through… Hey, Adachi!” Dojima looked around, then frowned. “Damn it, I told him not to leave his post.” Then he spotted Tsuna and his friends and strode over to them. “What are you guys doing here?”

Tsuna gave his uncle one of those looks. “We pass through here daily on the way to and from school,” he said slowly.

“…Is that so?” Dojima replied skeptically. “Look, fine. Just remember that Kujikawa-san might be a celebrity, but this is her home. Try not to bother them too much.” He turned and headed off to (presumably) find his partner.

Tsuna sighed. “It is so difficult to even try to like that man.”

“And the second she goes missing, his suspicion of you will bump up another notch,” Sin said, shaking his head.

He knew one of the twins would be keeping an eye on the area, so he shrugged and said, “Right, let’s go.”

Kujikawa was on the TV again that night, but the image was still full of static. She was still safe, for the moment.

####  23 June 2011, Thursday

“It occurs to me,” he said, “that whoever the kidnapper is must have the same power I do and that you all gained once you obtained Personas.”

There was still a fair amount of foot traffic in the shopping district, but at least there were no cars to dodge like the day previous. They arrived near the tofu shop in time to see Adachi dart out and say, “C’mon out, you bastard! We’re ready for you…” Then he noticed something and his gaze went up the nearby utility pole. “Wh-who’s there!?”

Clinging to the pole was a young man. He couldn’t possibly be trying very hard to blend in given he was wearing jeans, an orange shirt, and a purple backpack. The second he was noticed he shimmied down the pole and booked it.

Kanji was in the area and when he saw Adachi after the guy, chased him, too, and “cornered” him at the intersection by the petrol station, not far from where they were standing.

“D-Don’t come near me!” Backpack said quaveringly.

“Shaddap!” Kanji said. “What kinda idiot would—”

“I-I’ll do it, you know,” Backpack said as Adachi caught up, huffing and puffing. “What’re you gonna do if I get run over!?”

“N-No!” Adachi whined. “If the suspect gets injured, the police will be held responsible. They’ll get really angry, and… Um…”

“I’ll do it, I swear! S-So get outta here and stop chasing me!”

Tsuna quirked a brow at Mukuro, who smirked and nodded, and the next second Backpack was distracted by something only he could see. Kanji chose that moment to tackle the guy to the pavement.

“H-How dare you assault an ordinary citizen like—”

“Shut the hell up!” Kanji yelled. “Not so ordinary if the police were chasing you! What were you _doing_!?”

“I-I just really like Risette, okay!? So I wanted to take a peek into her room… Look, see!? All I’ve got on me is a bunch of cameras!”

“All right, then,” Adachi said authoritatively. “No two ways about it. I’ll take it from here,” he said to Kanji. “We’ll hear _your_ story down at the station… Ooh, how I’ve waited to use that line!”

Kanji got up and hauled Backpack to his feet.

“P-Please! Let me go! I didn’t do anything wrong! I-I know for a fact it’s not a crime in this country to take secret pictures!”

“Of a minor girl’s bedroom?” he whispered. “Dude is whacked.”

Adachi slapped handcuffs on the guy. “Don’t you understand what’s happening here? You’re under suspicion of murder! Come with me! We’ll talk about this later! Wow, that went better than I thought! What a coup! I gotta thank you for your help!” he said to Kanji. “Well done!”

“Oh, uh… Sure,” Kanji said, scratching his head.

“But you really shouldn’t get involved in stuff like this. It’s dangerous. Now c’mon, let’s go!” Adachi hauled Backpack away.

“Show’s over, I guess. Let’s continue on.”

When they pulled even with Marukyu Tofu an old lady was out front, looking around worriedly.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Oh? Oh, it’s nothing. My granddaughter seems to have gone out without saying a word…”

“I see. She’ll return soon, I’m sure,” he said comfortingly, not believing a word he said.

“Well, she’s quite worn out, in many ways. Perhaps she just went someplace quiet for a bit.” The old lady turned and re-entered the shop.

“Right,” he drawled once they got far enough past.

“Unfortunately, we were distracted by the chase,” Daemon said. The twins were sporting expressions of shame.

“If she really was taken, we’ll know tonight,” he said. “And I’m inclined to chalk up the incredible coincidence to whatever it is that’s blinding us, so don’t feel too bad.”

“So, check stocks,” Ken said. “Odds are we’re going in tomorrow.”

“Maybe, if we can come up with a good enough excuse,” Chikusa said, “we could gloss over her disappearance, potentially. Assuming we managed whatever place she ends up in in one go.”

Tsuna and Sin spent the next two hours replenishing their bento stock in anticipation of entering the TV World the next morning. Even if, by some chance, it was a false alarm, it needed to be done anyway.

“Just in case?” he said. “Quietly ask around about Kujikawa? Or just mine her family’s minds for information? I seem to recall that Teddie needed extra information about Kanji-kun, so…” Then he hastened home so he could cook dinner for his cousin.

Midnight rolled around and he was ready, the whiteboard that usually covered the flat-screen pushed out of the way. Between one moment and the next the screen went from black to a “show”. That it was clear and vivid made it obvious that Kujikawa had been taken.

“Maru-Q! Push Risette!”

The location looked like a club of some kind.

“Good evening, good evening! I’m Kujikawa Rise! This spring, one young girl levels up to become a high school idol… Yaayy! So today, I’m gonna celebrate by pushing the limits of Standards & Practices! Does everybody know what time it is? Showtime! Show what, huh? Hmhmhm… E-very-thing! Eee, how embarrassing! Is this too hot for TV!? Well, if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing all the way! I’m gonna bare it all for you! Heehee! Stay tuned!”

The screen went dark.

Tsuna shrugged, turned off the light, and went to bed.


	10. λ21: 10: 24-30 June 2011

## λ21  
10: 24-30 June 2011

####  24 June 2011, Friday

Teddie was sulking again when they arrived.

“You okay, Teddie?” he asked.

“I wasn’t crying,” the bear said, still facing away from them. His hands were back again like he was supporting a bad back. “Everyone was having fun out there. You all forgot about me… I was abandoned.”

Shades of Lambo again. “We wouldn’t do that.”

“Were you lonely, little bear?” Mukuro asked.

“I was bored. It made me all listless,” Teddie replied. “I’m a useless bear. I don’t even know what I am. I couldn’t figure it out… No one would come visit me… Then I thought I heard voices coming from your world. They were all having so much fun… I was so lonely I tried to cry. But I couldn’t… When I’m alone, I think too much. It makes me even lonelier. I was so sad that my chest would burst and cotton would fly out…”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “We saw you a week ago, Teddie. We also had a mandatory trip we had to take, plus checking around because we suspected someone new would be thrown in here. Did anyone arrive yesterday? If it matters, it would be a girl by the name of Kujikawa Rise.”

“Kujikawa Rise…? Hm…”

“You having trouble telling?” Sin asked.

“I’m a pretty shabby bear,” Teddie said, finally turning around. “Soon, I won’t be useful at all. Then I’ll get thrown away…”

Tsuna shook his head. “Not true.”

“I can … stay with you all? I’ll need more information, you know. I can’t tell for sure, but I can kinda sense someone in here…”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said.

“Thank you beary much. You’re really kind, sensei… I’ll try even harder from now on.”

Tsuna was oddly surprised when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Star Arcana.

—flashed up.

“From what we could find out about her, she seems to have a ‘manufactured personality’,” Daemon said. “She worries about her ‘normal self’ and her ‘idol self’.”

Teddie hummed. “Her real self… I see… Then she’s just like me. The delicate, sentimental type.”

He honestly wondered how the bear came to that conclusion.

“Then… Hm…. Whaah!? There’s something out there! Is this it!? Did I find her!? Follow me!” Teddie skittered off over the bridge.

After a long walk they arrived at another representation of the shopping district, though that time the weird red-black portal was covering the entrance to Marukyu Tofu. Inside it was incredibly dark, though he could see that the carpet was purple. It was most likely the place shown on the Midnight Channel.

Without warning lights blazed on, nearly blinding him, but once his eyes adjusted he could see that it was that same place. Purple predominated, though the fabric on the booths was red. Purple hearts were projected onto the curtains covering the walls.

“Is this a club or a strip club?” he muttered.

“Strip?” Teddie asked. “Aha! I know what that is! It’s the thing zebras have, right!?”

“…Maybe when you’re older. Right, let’s press on and see what we’re dealing with.”

The interior beyond the initial room was more of the usual, a layout heavily skewed in favor of hallways. The carpet changed to a red runner down the center, bordered in purple, and the walls were red with purple or pink hangings. The chandeliers were multi-coloured in terms of light colour, though the ones embedded into the floor were plain white. Somehow there were lips projected onto the walls, though no apparatus was visible to create the effect, and hearts were projected onto the hangings slanting down from the ceiling.

The music he could hear sounded like electronica, with a throbbing beat. A girl was saying “sorry, could you make the music louder?” in a “sensual” voice 

“Hm… This smell, this atmosphere… It’s making my heart pound!” Teddie said.

Tsuna eyed the bear oddly, then let his intuition nudge him along. They ended up, after wailing a number of Shadows, in a “private” room. There was a chest there, but…

“What’s wrong?” Ken asked.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m getting mixed signals. There’s something … odd … about this chest?”

A look went around, and with it a silent conversation. Eventually Daemon said, “We’re game if you are.”

Tsuna shrugged and opened it. He was not expecting some massive dude in a mask, black leather, and chains to appear, ready to rumble. He was … nasty, and the chains kept rattling ominously. The fact that the Shadow used Mind Charge right out of the gate meant he would be casting, probably something horrible.

They lasted a good few minutes before Tsuna felt something horrible prickling up his spine, and the next thing he knew they were all standing back at the entrance to the TV World, blinking in confusion.

“I think … we died?” Mukuro said uncertainly.

“Game rules!” Ken crowed. “We respawned back at a checkpoint, dude!”

“Fuck me,” he said. “Okay, so, learning experience. Apparently death is not so absolute here.”

“While we’re coming down from that adrenaline high, I need to point out that I noticed something,” Hayato said. “Some of those Shadows were using spells or some shit on us, but they kept missing. The kind of shit Mukuro and the twins have in their Personas’ arsenals.”

“I do believe you’re right,” Sin said. “Anything that affects the mind? Maybe it’s all the training in the mind arts we have?”

“Hey! Why didn’t you guys follow!?” Teddie asked, skittering over the bridge.

Tsuna shot a look of confusion his way, and then noticed something that hadn’t been there before. There was a door to the Velvet Room just standing there, attached to nothing, glowing a cold blue. “Yeah, we need to pause for a minute first. I think there’s something I need to do.”

As he passed through the door his intuition started nudging him insistently, so he followed its directions, so to speak. It led him to acquire a Ghoul Persona, along with a Lilim, then fuse them together to get a Kaiwan.

Something odd happened, though. Something called a “Skill Change” day, whatever that meant, though it became clear when he was prompted to allow a skill change. His intuition said yes, so he did. The Tetrakarn skill he could see in the list shivered and shuddered and morphed into a new one.

His intuition was not satisfied with the result, so he acquired another Ghoul and fused that with Kaiwan to get Queen Mab, then grabbed Ghoul again and fused those two to get … Kaiwan, and another skill change.

Not understanding in the least what it was his intuition was after, but not willing to quibble, he kept looping between Queen Mab and Kaiwan (and it was a good thing he was filthy rich, because summoning Ghoul so often started to add up) until the skill changed resulted in something called Repel Physical.

Tsuna blinked. “That’s not a terrible thing to have at all,” he muttered to himself, then registered that version of Kaiwan with Margaret.

His intuition still was not satisfied, however. Just in case, he grabbed Ghoul again and fused it with Kaiwan so the new Queen Mab could inherit Repel Physical. Then that got registered before grabbing yet another Ghoul.

A few dozen more rounds later and skill change turned up something called Victory Cry.

Tsuna blinked when he read the description. At the end of every battle his HP and SP would be replenished. Since Kaiwan at that point had both Repel Physical and Victory Cry, he registered the new version of it and, when his intuition remained silent, exited the room.

“Right, okay, let’s try this again,” he said, flashing up a quick explanation via Mist so that Teddie wouldn’t get more confused than he already was.

It was on 3F that Teddie perked up. “Mmmm!? I can smell it! I smell something! My nose is sniffing out some kind of clue!”

Shortly thereafter they were at yet another curtain door. Teddie perked up again. “The smell’s coming from here!”

Through the curtain was a bikini-clad Rise, or what appeared to be her.

“Something’s not right,” Xeul said. “Her eyes…”

“The ominous blue haze doesn’t help. Must be her other self.”

“Hello, all you fans out there!” Shadow Rise said. “Thanks for coming today! Today, you’re gonna see every last inch of me! What’s that? You don’t believe me?” She laughed. “Okay, okay! Then why don’t we—oh, but you won’t be able to see with all this smoke, huh? Okie-dokie! Just follow me a little farther in and I’ll prove that I’m every bit as good as my word!”

Tsuna got to enjoy an overlay appearing.

Maru-Q Midsummer Night’s Dream Special

—it proclaimed.

All the way! Live! Hot!! Risette exposed!!

—it further proclaimed, in yellow, pink, red, purple, and blue, complete with golden sparkles. He was concerned his eyes might start bleeding.

The sound of a crowd of pleased people was heard, cheering.

“All right, Risetteers! Don’t touch that dial! When we come back, you’ll get a good, long look at the real me! Maru-Q!” the Shadow said, then turned and dashed away.

Growling then sounded, not unlike they had heard in earlier dungeons. Teddie stepped back into his role as Captain Obvious and said, “The Shadows are really getting aggravated! What we just saw is what that Rise girl is suppressing! She’ll be in trouble at this rate!”

On 4F they started disembodied hearing voices again.

“Good evening, everyone! I’m Risette! Thanks for being such faithful viewers! I’m tired of diets! Enough with going to the gym! Good thing there’s something that even I can handle!”

Teddie growled. “I’ve had enough of this place, too! Urgh, I’m getting all dizzy…”

On 5F Teddie asked, “Sensei, are you all right? Why don’t we call it a day today? I’m getting really dizzy…”

“Oh!?” Shadow Rise’s voice came again. “You’ve come so far… Does that mean you’re a fan of mine? Seriously!? That makes Risette sooo happy! Since you tried so hard, I wonder if I should do something special for you. …But not here! First, you gotta prove your love just a liiiiitle bit more! I’ll be waiting!”

And like a hormone-ridden teen, Teddie reversed himself. “…! S-Sensei! I’m gonna try even harder!”

On 6F they heard, “C’mon, hang in there! Just a little more to go! I’m rooting for you!”

“Wha..? We’re desperately trying to save her, but she’s cheering us on instead…?” Poor Teddie looked like he would fall over soon from dizziness and confusion. “I don’t know how to feel about this…”

On 7F they heard, “Wow! I’m so happy you came! But still, I’m a little embarrassed… So I’m gonna turn out the lights!”

And she did.

Teddie piped up again. “Hm!? If she turned off the lights, then that means…” He gulped. “S-Sensei! Am I about to climb the stairway to adulthood!?”

He really wondered just what the hell Teddie was. Some somewhat self-aware construct made up of emotions and thoughts and other stuff floating around in the collective unconscious? Some amalgamation that clawed its way up to a form of sentience?

They could see, but only a short distance ahead and behind. It was like a light was following overhead, but without shining in their eyes and blinding them.

One of the “doors” was “locked”, and checking it produced another comment from Shadow Rise. “Awwww! You’re so impatient! You can’t go in yet, mmm? Over here, over here! Hurry!”

“How are we doing?” he asked. The music was getting to him, and the darkness was annoying, to say the least. “Whatever is in there we can take.”

“Surprisingly well, I should think,” Daemon said. “This place hasn’t been as difficult as expected, but that could only be because we’ve spent so much time grinding.”

The others all seemed game to keep going, so he nodded. “Let’s mosey, then.”

Another “door” along the way prompted more commentary.

“You came! Okay. I’m ready for anything…”

Teddie gulped again. “…Are you ready, sensei?”

Tsuna opened the curtain. Shadow Rise was beyond it, that blue haze around her, eyes shining as golden as the bikini she was wearing. Considering what floor they were on, and the fact that the real Rise was nowhere to be seen (though the lack of lighting made that unclear), he rather doubted this was the boss battle of Maru-Q.

“It’s my first time… Please be gentle. I’m turning on the lights, okay?”

Sure enough, when the lights came back on, Shadow Rise was gone, and in her place was a snake-like Shadow.

Teddie freaked. “Whooooooa!?”

Around its “neck” was a male symbol in pastel blue, and hooked to that was a female symbol in pastel pink. The “head” was blood red.

“The symbolism is killing me here,” he complained.

They were in luck. The damn thing (Amorous Snake going by Analysis) liked to use debuffs, and they shrugged those off. It was also weak to fire. Once it went down Teddie chimed in again.

“What is this immense feeling of … disappointment? I didn’t even get a chance to choose! Have I been fooled? Let’s just go home now, sensei…”

Tsuna shook his head. “Let’s take a break, have something to eat, then find the next floor at the very least.”

They all sat down and broke out the bentos while Teddie moved closer to the entrance to play lookout.

“The music in this place is enervating,” a scowling Mukuro said, taking an angry sip from his water bottle. “I mean, I’m fine, I cool to keep going, it’s just…”

“Yeah, I hear you,” he said and sighed. “This music just gets to you.”

“The colour scheme isn’t helping,” Daemon said. “These colours are making my eyes water.”

“Just think,” Sin said with false cheerfulness. “When we come back later to grind…”

Groans went around.

“We hit a mid-boss on floor seven, so there’s unlikely to be more than fourteen floors,” Chikusa opined. “Hopefully. Maybe less.”

“We can hope. We can also hope we can handle this today. And speaking of that, anyone come up with a plausible scenario where she wandered off to get away from the crowds for a bit and decided to sleep… Where?”

“…She could have slipped into one of the abandoned shops?” Hayato suggested. “Well, assuming one of them had an unlocked door. Or maybe she knows of some hiding spot from when she used to live here before?”

A good point. He quirked a brow at his Mists, who nodded. Something to check once they got to the real Rise and had a chance to mine her mind before blurring her memories of her stay in the TV World to a nightmarish mess.

Once they were finished eating they packed the boxes away and continued on. There was nothing of particular note on floors eight through ten, unless one counted a special Shadow called a Treasure Hand which, when defeated, dropped a chest key and ¥6,000.

Teddie seemed to be experiencing an existential crisis of sorts based on his comments after hearing what a disembodied Rise had to say when they ascended to each new floor, and Tsuna worried that he would soon flip out on them. Teddie claimed he was “empty” after Shadow Rise said it’s what’s inside that counts.

They didn’t run into any more of those Leather-and-Chains guys, which was good and bad. Tsuna rather wanted to defeat one to see what sort of loot they’d get, but he also did _not_ want to have to redo the entire dungeon if they encountered one and failed again.

11F, however, was different. At the top of the stairs was one of those curtain doors, the only thing visible. His intuition seemed to be leaning toward success, but the feeling he got was slightly mixed, which he reported to the others.

“Okay, so, how about we return to the entrance long enough for an auto-save to kick in,” Sin said, “then return and give it a shot? That way if we fail, we can at least come straight back and go in with a much better idea of what to expect.”

So they did. Tsuna took a few minutes to visit the Velvet Room, purchased some more magic leaves from the fox, then they returned to 11F of Marukyu. Through the curtain was the boss room. Shadow Rise stood on a raised, circular platform, right in front of what looked like a stripper pole. Off to the side the real Rise was kneeling, wearing what he presumed was the “uniform” of Marukyu Tofu. She had a kerchief keeping her hair back.

Shadow Rise laughed. “They’re all watching! All eyes are on me now!”

“Stop it!”

“Awwww! What’s the matter? You wanna show your stuff, don’tcha? How’s this!?” Shadow Rise started circling the pole, doing a stripper dance.

“Please … stop this…”

Shadow Rise chuckled. “Oooh, she wants me to stop. That’s so funny! As if that’s even close to what you’re really thinking, you little skank! You’re me! And obviously, I’m you!”

“No… That’s not true…”

Shadow Rise laughed again. “C’mon, look! You can’t tear your eyes away! This is me! This is who I really am! Not Risette, the fake celebrity! Look at the girl right in front of you! I’m sick of being some airhead cliché who chokes down everything she’s fed and takes it all with a smile! ‘Risette’? Who the hell is she? There’s no such person in this world! I’m no one but myself! C’mon, look at me!”

“…That’s not—I—!”

“Well, then, I guess it’s time to prove it. I’m gonna show it all off! Let my naked truth be burned into your brains!”

Rise finally looked up, then stood. She clutched at her head and shook it back and forth. “Stop… Stop it! You’re… You’re … not me!”

The real Rise was pounced on and dragged out of the way as they prepared to fight.

Shadow Rise began chuckling and laughing, “Here it comes! Now, I’m finally myself!” She transformed into … a multi-coloured nightmare. Either she was wearing a skin-tight bodysuit or her skin was an oil slick of colours. She still had Rise’s twin tails, but her face resembled a satellite dish made up of hexagons. She was also hanging off that stripper pole practically upside down, anchored only by one leg.

She dropped down, revealing that she had abnormally long legs and liked to move obscenely. “Take a look. I am the Shadow, the True Self,” she said as she re-took her pose on the pole. “And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! It’s time for me to show you every last inch of myself! And for our guests in the front row … I’ll give you extra-special, extra-intense service!” she said, showing off horrifyingly long, sharp nails that resembled claws more than anything.

Every time she attacked, in any way, she’d drop off the pole and do that obscene move again. She had fire, ice, electric, physical, _and_ could drain SP from any of them. She also proved to be weak to nothing, and nulled Light and Dark, which made Sin annoyed.

When about a third of her health was taken down she started using something called Mind Slice, but as they were unaffected by attacks of that nature, it did nothing but waste one of her turns. When they got her down by two-thirds, however, she used something called Supreme Insight. She “scanned” the entire party and laughed. “I can see everything about you…”

The other result was that it basically turned her invulnerable.

“Maybe it’ll wear off after a few turns?” Mukuro said.

Tsuna shrugged. “Let’s guard for a few turns, then. Every other buffs wears off, so…”

“I-I’m completely useless,” Teddie said into the (relative) silence.

“What?” Ken asked, casting a confused look at the bear.

“That power… I think it’s scanning us! Oh, this is not good!”

“And you mean what by ‘not good’?”

“Woohoo! Analysis complete! Okay, here comes my counterattack! See if you can dodge, hm?”

“S-Stop it!” Teddie cried.

She lashed out with something that saw all of them on the floor and blinking the light out of their eyes.

“What the hell was that?” Sin said.

“If that shit don’t wear off, we might…”

“No!” Teddie said. “You guys can’t die! What can I do…? Sensei…”

Tsuna pushed himself up enough that he could look back at the bear. “I can’t decide that for you.”

“There must be something… Something I can do… Am I going to be all alone again…? No… That’s not what I want!”

Shadow Rise appeared to be getting ready for another attack. “Okie dokie, here we go again! Goodbye … forever!”

Teddie began to freak out. “M-My body’s moving on its own! Wh-Why am I stepping forward!? W-Whoaaa!” The bear skittered forward to stand between them and the Shadow. “I-I feel like I’m going bear-serk!” He growled. “I-I’ll do it! Take a good look … at Teddie’s last stand!”

Shadow Rise paused. “…!? This high-energy reading… Is it coming from that weird thing!?”

“Teddie, what are you doing?” he asked, still trying to get up. It almost looked like the bear was giving off flames, as if he’d gone into Hyper Dying Will mode.

Teddie roared and the flame aura intensified… Whatever he did it was over in a flash of blinding light. Shadow Rise was back to normal girl form, singed, and flat on the floor. Unfortunately, Teddie was quite literally flattened. He looked like a singed decal on the floor, or a cardboard cutout that had been knocked over.

On the plus side, they were able to stand back up and move again.

“Teddie,” Ken called, moving closer. “You could have died.”

Teddie … could move? Sort of? He moved like one of those flatfish undulating on the ocean floor. “Did I… Did I help…?” he asked.

“You saved our lives,” Tsuna said.

“Neat! I’m so glad. I didn’t want to be alone anymore.” Teddie voice was a bit off, as if his lungs had been crushed. But given that no one knew what was inside the suit… He somehow managed to stand up again (though it was more like floated up) and realized just how wrong the situation was. “Wh-What in the world!? Nooooo…. My fine, silky fur… I was so proud of it!” He sobbed and undulated and Tsuna’s stomach was starting to complain just looking at the movement.

“Mm… Where … am I…?”

Everyone looked back to where the real Rise was. She had sat up and was looking around in confusion.

Tsuna exchanged a look with the others; this was different. No one else had managed to come out of the dazed, semi-conscious state that generally resulted in the transformation of their Shadow into a full-fledged boss.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “This is all my fault…” She got up and went over to her Shadow self. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “Here, stand up. You must’ve been in a lot of pain up to now. You’re part of me, but I kept refusing to admit you existed… I was trying to figure out who the real me was. But I realize now that I was on the wrong track. There is no ‘real’ me. It just doesn’t exist.”

“There’s no … real me…?” Teddie whispered.

“You… Me… Even Risette… They were all born from me. All of them are … me.”

Tsuna blinked when he saw—

The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest. She has obtained the façade used to overcome life’s hardships, the Persona Himiko!

—flash up in front of him. ‘Fucking hell.’

“There’s no … real me…?” Teddie repeated.

“Real? Me?” Something chuckled. “Such foolishness.”

They whipped around to see a Shadow version of Teddie looming behind him.

“What the everloving fuck?” he muttered.

“Is that an other Teddie?” Chikusa said. “The thoughts Teddie’s not shared with us?”

“I believe so,” Rise said, “but it seems like there’s more. I felt some powerful presence intervene…”

“Wh-What’s going on!?” Teddie managed to undulate around to see what was behind him. “Wh-Whoaa!”

“The truth is unattainable… It will always be shrouded in fog. Though you reach through the murk and the gloom to grasp something, you have no means to know it is the truth. In which case, why…? What sense is there in yearning for truth?”

Tsuna was experiencing serious shades of his dreams at that point. Coupled with Rise’s mention of a powerful presence, he had to wonder if whatever was fogging over their sight had stepped in and used Teddie’s Shadow as a medium, either to end the threat they posed now, or convince them that seeking the truth was indeed futile.

“Close your eyes. Lie to yourself. Live in blissful ignorance. It is a much smarter way to exist.”

“Wh-What are you talking about?” Teddie said. “I don’t understand a word you’re saying!”

‘I not entirely sure that message was meant for you,’ Tsuna thought.

“You’re just making it sound difficult because I’m not that smart! How rude! Maybe you can’t tell, but I’m thinking as hard as I can!”

“It is those efforts that I am calling useless. You are hollow. Empty. At your core, you know this. You just cannot accept it. So you seek an alternate form … a denial of your nature. You have no lost memories. If you have forgotten anything, it is this truth.”

“Th-That’s … a lie…” Teddie backed away in denial.

“Shall I spell it out for you? You are but a mere—”

“I said shaddup!” Teddie yelled, then threw himself at the Shadow … and bounced right off.

“It is the same for all of you. You undergo suffering because of your search for the truth. This world is filled with a thick, heavy fog. How can you find something when you know not what you search for?”

Tsuna scoffed. “There is a way to find it.”

“And thus, you invite more suffering upon yourselves. It is beyond my comprehension.”

If nothing else, just the way the thing spoke made it clear it was not a true Shadow form of Teddie.

“Then I will grant you one truth. You will all die here. You sought the truth, only to find death.” Shadow “Teddie” started to blaze with that haze of blue.

“Get ready, everyone,” Rise said. “I should be able to manage … to take the bear’s place. It’s my turn to save all of you.”

The boss form of Shadow “Teddie” was sunk into the floor, its “fur” singed and dirty. It also had two holes in its head, one around its right eye that was mostly a circle, and the other was large gaps cracked out from the surface, over and under its left eye. The interior was pitch black, as if indeed it was truly empty. The eyes were oddly outlined in neon blue, cyan, and purple, and they moved as if they were disconnected from the rest of the body.

“I am the Shadow, the True Self. I shall give you the ‘truth’ you claim to hold so dear. The inescapable fact of your death here! Foolish beings! Accept your end with dignity and grace!”

Two rounds showed that Shadow Teddie was weak to nothing, and it drained ice. Sin was once again annoyed, because his skills with Light and Dark were nulled. As a result, he stayed back to keep an eye on Teddie.

The second Tsuna saw the thing use Mind Charge, he switched to a Persona that nulled ice attacks, going on the premise that anything which drained ice stood a good chance of using it as an attack. Given that it did…

Its attack to mute them slid right off, so that was a wasted turn. Aside from that it used physical attacks. Once they got it down far enough it said, “Stop this futile struggling. Even if you resist, it will all come to naught.” It then used something called Ultra Charge.

“What?” Rise said. “I’m having a bad feeling about this.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking we should guard,” Ken said.

Shadow Teddie did not attack at the end of that round, but instead continued to charge.

“It’s… It’s going to attack!” Rise called out. “Get ready!”

They guarded again, and it used something called Nihil Hand … which was blocked entirely by their guard.

“Okay, good to know,” he said.

“If that’s the best it can do,” Mukuro said, “we should just consider this a battle of attrition. Guard whenever it does a Mind Charge, and we have one free round to heal if necessary when it does an Ultra Charge.”

“Right.”

When they got it down to half-health it said, “What…? How can you summon such strength for such a futile endeavor!?” It immediately followed up with something called Nullity Guidance, which slid right off.

At one-third health it spoke again. “Why do still resist? Even should you win, naught but suffering awaits!”

The more it got down in health, the more those neon eyes seemed to disconnect from the body. It was bizarre and a little sickening. Once it “died” the boss form disappeared. Shadow Teddie reappeared behind an undulating Teddie.

Teddie turned around. “I… I don’t know who I am. I’ve thought a number of times that … maybe there is no answer. But I’m here… I live here.”

“You’re not alone, Teddie,” Tsuna said quietly.

Teddie swiveled around. “Then… I don’t have to do this all on my own?”

“We’ll do what we can to help you figure it out,” Xeul said.

“Y-You guys…! I’m… I’m one lucky bear!” Teddie sobbed.

Tsuna sighed quietly as—

The courage of heart to support one’s friends has been made manifest. He has obtained the façade to overcome life’s hardships, the Persona Kintoki-Douji!

—flashed up. He immediately quirked a brow at his Mists, and Rise went down in a heap the next second. “Let’s get her back to the entrance.”

Use of Traesto got them back to the dungeon entrance, and then it was a longish walk back to the studio. “Teddie, how are you holding up?” The poor bear was still flat and undulating. He still squeaked when he walked, though.

“…I wanna be alone for a while,” Teddie said. He sniffled and continued, “My beautiful fur is all rough and coarse… And my nose isn’t working too well either… So while I wait for my fur to grow back, I’m gonna train hard! Nobody can stop moi! Here goes!”

Teddie flopped to the floor and started to do sit-ups with grunts of effort. “Huh!”

“Teddie?”

“Don’t … talk … to me … please! One more set! Huh! Huh! Another one! Huh! Huh!”

“All right, then. Shall we be off?”

“Just kick back and wait for my wonderful comeback!” Teddie said. “Peace out!”

Tsuna shook his head and joined the exodus through the TV stack. Before he stepped through he said, “Good luck.”

“I said this before, but… I can sense something special about you, sensei. There must be something only I can do… That’s how I feel when I’m with sensei. That’s why I gotta get stronger! To find my special thing!” He roared. “Here goes! Huh! Huh!”

That counted as rank two for the Star Arcana, the message flashing up as Tsuna exited.

At the Rokudo house they were faced with what to do with Kujikawa. The Mists laid her out on a sofa and got to work. Tsuna went into the kitchen long enough to splash some water on his face, and when he came back out Mukuro looked up and said, “Good news. There was a place she used to use when she was younger. It’s not far outside of town and we got a good enough look to be able to open a window to the place. It looks fine.”

“So, right. The usual, then. Blur her memories to hell and back of that whole episode, modify things to make her believe she went walkabout to avoid the crowds for a bit, and she spent the night there. She can return and apologize to her family for worrying them. On a side note, is her memory also blurred regarding her kidnapping?”

Mukuro nodded. “Unfortunately.”

His twins grimaced; clearly they were still smarting over getting distracted and not seeing what happened.

“I still think that’s the fault of some higher power,” he reminded them.

“We know,” Daemon said sourly. “It still rankles. We’re a billion years old,” he said, indulging in rampant hyperbole, “and we were still distracted like rank amateurs.”

Tsuna walked over and sat down next to his brother so he could lean into him. Daemon relaxed, getting the message Tsuna wasn’t voicing, the reminder that it was Daemon who managed to break through his increasingly colder heart and teach him he _could_ trust again, and allow himself to become attached to another human being and it wouldn’t always end in heartbreak.

Maybe it had nothing to do with and couldn’t erase the perceived shame, but it was a hell of a comfort to Tsuna. Family didn’t end with blood. Hell, sometimes it didn’t even start with blood. And Tsuna, who knew all of Daemon’s many faults and irritating quirks, didn’t give a fuck. Daemon was his brother in all the ways that counted and he loved him dearly. Beating himself up over something most likely completely out of his control was counterproductive, to say the least.

Daemon sighed faintly and nodded. “All right, I’ll let it go. As much as I can, anyway.”

Tsuna laughed merrily and kissed his brother on the cheek. “Do you guys need me to do up a Bounding Box, or…?”

Xeul shook his head. “It’s only a temporary one and we can keep a window on her the whole time. Technically, we can keep her here, out cold, until right before it’s time for her to ‘wake up’ and return to her home, so she’d only be there, unconscious, for a minute at best.”

“Whatever her mental issues are, we can hope that having gained a Persona will help her figure things out, even if it’s only subconsciously,” Hayato commented.

“We can hope,” he said, “because I really do not want to play therapist to a celebrity and end up with my picture in a rag somewhere because paparazzi caught sight of me spending time with her.”

“Considering you look like a Giotto clone? I should hope not.”

“I suddenly have the urge to go hunting through our collection of magic books,” Chikusa said. “Maybe there’s something in one of them that would always blur our faces if someone ever tried to take a picture.”

“The other option, if some kind of enchanted item wouldn’t work, would be to see if a personal Bounding Box could do the same, or at least have it set to divert people looking to take pictures of you specifically,” Sin said. “I can’t imagine something like that would make a difference when you were caught as an incidental, though.”

“We can always test it,” he said. “I do one up, and one of you try to take a picture of me… Something like that. On a side note, and speaking of Personas—” He paused long enough to drop a sound barrier around the flat-screen. “Teddie.”

“Yeah,” Ken said slowly. “What was up with that? If Teddie has his own Persona, does that make him … real? No longer just a manifestation? Could he come over to this side? Because he knows about the people who’ve been in there, and if he did come this way…”

“Fuck,” Hayato said. “He could inadvertently spill the beans to any of them.”

“And I’m not exactly keen on the idea of trying to mess with the mind of something that isn’t exactly human,” he said. “He doesn’t seem very bright—or rather, he’s ignorant, like a young child—but he could potentially make the connection between a Persona and the ability to pass through the TV? He’d come out here, though, presumably?”

“Would a Bounding Box even work on Teddie?” Xeul mused. “Most Mist things… They work against something with intelligence, and intelligence can be fooled, beguiled, diverted. He’s self-aware…”

“I’ll change the one for here regardless,” he said. “I have a good enough feel for Teddie that I should be able to do it with minimal effort. He may not think of it? I mean, he calls that place his home. Maybe he just wants it to be less … foggy? Scary? And that reminds me.”

Brows went up, even from the Mists who were still mostly focusing on Kujikawa.

“Shadow Teddie… I have the distinct feeling that wasn’t exactly … him. The way it spoke was too reminiscent of that dream I had.”

Daemon turned toward him again, nodding. “Now that you mention it, yes. There were distinct similarities, almost as if whatever that entity was used Shadow Teddie as a … conduit? Host?”

“Then I’m voting for this entity to be the whatever that’s making us so fuckin’ blind,” Hayato said. “It clearly never took a close look at any of us, or can’t for some reason, because otherwise it’d know all that twaddle about futility was about as convincing as…”

“Lal saying the Tsow was a great boss?”

Half the room snorted.

“Well, we’re not terrible at improvising,” he said. “If Teddie comes through, we just roll with it. He seems to look to me as a … leader type, though, so…? He might listen. I mean, he calls me sensei, for fuck’s sake.”

“It’s like having a less chaotic Lambo around,” Sin said.

Tsuna nodded. “Yeah, except that Teddie is even more clueless and doesn’t pick his nose in public.”

Sin grimaced along with Hayato at that reminder.

“Of course, now I’m wondering if, should Teddie have become actually real, would he need to eat and sleep and all that, if the next time we see him he’ll be asking about food.”

“Dude, if Teddie comes over here and wants to stay, someone is going to have to invent a background and insert the appropriate records for him.”

“And teach him how to exist and survive in this world,” Chikusa added. “That does not sound fun, by the way.”

“If he comes this way,” Sin said, “will he even still look like that? They kept going on about being ‘empty’. Would that bear outfit really be just an outfit? I mean, c’mon, his eyes and mouth move like they’re real. Maybe that zipper…”

Ken shook his head. “I’m almost afraid of what might be inside. Seeing the Shadow Boss form was a bit unsettling. Those eyes…” He shook his head again, as if trying to shake off the memory.

Tsuna obligingly changed the subject by saying, “There’s also Leather-and-Chains dude. I am super curious about what sort of loot he might drop. Considering that we ‘died’ and respawned, and yet my intuition wasn’t screaming at me to leave that chest alone…”

“Well, so, okay,” Ken said. “After we’ve dealt with Quelorie Magic here, we can go fuck with that? We know we’ll just respawn, so if we manage to keep finding it, testing it, we might work out a viable strategy. And if we can do it once…”

His family started nodding.

“It would also help me to better know what Personas to have in my, uh, deck,” he said. “To deal with that, anyway. It used both magic and physical attacks, but… I remember ice…”

“Fire.”

“Electric.”

“Wind. And Almighty.”

“Light and Dark,” Sin said. “It uses everything. And it was using Break and Drain. Fucker’s powerful. I can heal with my Persona, and so can Heul if he has the right ones, and we have our stash. We should check Daidara’s to see what accessories he has. At the very least we could see about accessories or armor that can cover our weaknesses, preferably null or reflect, but even ones that’d blunt the damage would be something.”

“And maybe since it’s such a bad-ass it drops something equally bad-ass,” Ken said.

“Right, that’s that, then,” Xeul said. “She’s ready to be stepped over to her childhood hideout. When she wakes up she’ll believe what we want her to believe, go home, apologize, and it should be fine.”

“Though we’ll be keeping a side-eye on her,” Mukuro said.

“For a bit, anyway,” Daemon said, then hefted her up and stepped away.

Xeul opened a large window so they could all see, and Daemon, with his “package”, appeared a moment later. The girl was arranged carefully on a rudimentary bed and covered with what was clearly meant to have been brought with her, which meant one of his Mists had been light-fingered for the cause.

Daemon then vanished from sight and, several seconds later, Kujikawa woke up, looked guilty, and started mumbling about going home to apologize. She was up, had her blanket tucked under her arm, and was on her way home by the time two minutes had gone by. Only after she was safely home and was in the process of explaining where she’d been and apologizing for worrying them did they stop monitoring her. Daemon stepped into the house shortly after.

“I wonder how Blue Hat will take this,” he mused. “After all, the last two disappearances were cleared up almost immediately, and both disguised as something else.”

“It might make her more intent on risking herself,” Hayato said. “I would know.”

Tsuna immediately leaned into his Storm and snuck an arm around his waist to give him a hug.

Hayato laughed. “You know I’m long since over that, but thank you.”

Tsuna scoffed. “It never hurts anyone to have a reminder that someone loves them. It doesn’t matter that you already know. Now, how about we go back in and hunt down another Leather-and-Chains to play with. We can see about hitting Daidara’s after school lets out.”

Daidara’s had plenty to choose from and, while they were there, they unloaded their loot on him. True, the man did not have anything that would straight up negate damage of a certain sort, but they purchased what they could.

They had not run into Leather-and-Chains again that session, but they would, eventually.

Before they returned to the house, Tsuna stopped in at the shrine to see if there was another ema in the offering.

> ####  My wallet is gone.  
>  It vanished in the dense fog.  
>  I yearn for some food.  
>  I wish my wallet would return.

He found the writer on the flood plain, muttering to herself.

“I’m hungry.

> #### “Withering, no food  
>  Memories of days gone by,  
>  Rejected kind words.  
>  O, why did I deny you?  
>  Another stupid mistake.”

She sighed. “I made another tanka…”

Tsuna opened a window on her and followed his intuition. He found a wallet in the grassy area near the shrine, picked it up, and returned to the flood plain.

“I’m so hungry,” she said. “The trash can’s empty today, too… I’m done for… I’m so hungry I’m seeing illusions… Aren’t you handsome,” she said, noticing him. “O-Oh, I’m sorry. You actually are handsome.” She laughed nervously. “I lost my wallet the other day. I can’t find it anywhere. My entire fortune… Even my seal… It was all in there. How unlucky I must be. My luck has left me, I really wish I had food. How my stomach growls.” She sighed. “I made another haiku…”

“What did it look like?” he asked.

“Oh? Square, brown with white stitching. The corner got caught on something once and torn.”

He nodded and held up the one he’d found. “Is this it?”

“…That! In your hands! That that that that!! That’s my wallet! You found it for me!?” She eagerly accepted it and frantically checked inside. “Th-This is it! My precious wallet! My seal! My contract and deed, they’re all here! Hooray! Now I can go back to buying up plots of land! Thank you so much! Oh, yeah! I need to go say thanks to the shrine, too!” She smiled and hastened off.

Tsuna followed at a far more sedate pace and checked in with the fox after she exited the shrine and hurried away. He left with another rank under his belt.

“Only one more to go, hopefully,” Daemon commented.

####  25 June 2011, Saturday

He spent the afternoon teaching Yukiko how to make okonomiyaki, picking up a rank in the process, then had dinner with Nanako. It was while they were watching television afterward that he heard the door open.

“He’s back!” Nanako said.

Judging by the noises he was hearing, his uncle was not alone.

“Whoa there!” he heard Adachi say. “Careful now, Dojima-san.”

“Itai! Damn it! How put a shtep here!?”

‘Kami-sama, he’s wasted,’ he thought, sparing a quick glance at his cousin, who looked resigned.

“That’d be the carpenters, boss. C’mon, don’t take your anger out on the house. That won’t solve anything.”

“Whooo…. I’m hoooome. Nanako! I’m baaaack!” his uncle said as Adachi helped him into the living area and let him slide off onto the sofa.

“W-Welcome back…”

“Oh, hi, Nanako-chan,” Adachi said. “Sorry, but could you go get his futon ready?” He exhaled in relief when she nodded and scurried off. “I think he had a little too much to drink,” he said confidentially and laughed a bit nervously.

“How else—” Dojima hiccuped. “—and I supposed to deal with this crap!? Friggin’ fancy-talkin’ kid… I’ve… I’ve been in this line’a work … since you were all learnin’ yer times tables!”

Adachi spared a look at his boss and partner, then said to Tsuna, “The prefectural police sent in special investigational support. ’Cause you know, we haven’t really made any progress on those murders since they started in April.” He laughed nervously again. “So this ‘special support’ is supposedly a hot-shot detective from a well-known private agency… But you shoulda seen the look on my face when I met him! He’s only a kid about your age! I hear he’s a pretty sharp cookie, though.”

Dojima stirred in annoyance. “Aww, he’s a brat like any other. Ain’t nothin’ he can do to help.” He hiccuped again. “He goes on and on about deductions and … deductions. Heh. Ace or no ace, the prefeckshure oughtta be more careful about giving us brats to babysit… Condes… Condescendin’ bashtards…” And another hiccup.

“The kid said, as long as he can be of assistance in solving a difficult case, he won’t require a reward,” Adachi said. “Well, you can imagine the shine the higher-ups took to him after that. So we can’t exactly turn him down.”

“Adachi!”

Adachi winced. “Gah, sorry! Me and my big mouth…”

“You run your jaw like this is all shome kinda joke… It’s your fault to begin with, for jumpin’ the gun and haulin’ in that Peeping Tom!”

“Oh…” Adachi laughed nervously again, which was seriously starting to get on Tsuna’s nerves. “Um…”

“And you!”

Tsuna blinked, for that was directed at him.

“You’cn take your share of the blame, too… Always being nearby crime scenes whenever somethin’ happens…”

He plastered on a ‘genuine’ look of confusion and aimed it at Adachi.

Nanako came back, her face set in a frown. “His futon’s ready,” she announced quietly.

Adachi startled, then nodded. “All right, Dojima-san, up and at ’em. Nanako-chan got your futon all ready for you!”

Dojima had slipped part-way into sleep, as all he did was mumble incoherently as Adachi got an arm under the man and hauled him back up.

Only once they were out of sight did Nanako say, her nose wrinkled, “Sure does stink like sake in here.”

Tsuna sighed.

####  26 June 2011, Sunday

“Okay, I’m going to do a party heal every round,” he said. “You guys do whatever you can to wail the tar out of this thing when we’re not guarding or having to replenish SP. Swap out as often as necessary.”

Everyone nodded, and then it was on. Well, Tsuna did not do a party heal the first round, because he always went first out of the party, and Leather-and-Chains had started with Mind Charge again. Therefore, everyone guarded. After that, though…

They did make a fortuitous discovery, though. While those on the sidelines could not in any way attack the target—only the four on the front line could do so—they could administer leaves from the fox or heal, which was necessary given that Leather-and-Chains was quite strong and did rather a lot of damage each round.

Tsuna was not forced to fall behind on healing due to exhausting his SP, and Sin could also be healing from the “back row”, as it were, along with Ken. They were fools for not having tried it earlier.

It would have been safer for Tsuna to be in the “back row”, as it were, but he was simply not allowed to leave the active party. They had gone over their first encounter with Leather-and-Chains in a pensieve (the thing was called a Reaper, apparently, since they had been a bit too high on adrenaline to pay attention to the overlay showing it’s name) and it was Tsuna’s death which had triggered the respawn.

Teddie had been hard at work doing sit-ups when they arrived, and so intent was his focus that he did not notice them at first. But when he did he shrieked, mostly about not being ready, so Tsuna had given the bear a wave and they headed off to the most recent dungeon.

Thankfully they had run into Leather-and-Chains early on, before the music had a chance to drive them all batty. But, considering the club was the first place they had run into a Reaper—and kami knew they had spent hour upon hour in the earlier ones—they had to make certain assumptions. Hopefully the next dungeon would either not have music, or it would be more pleasing to the ear and less likely to cause people to start flipping tables.

With Tsuna, Sin, and Ken on more or less permanent Healer duty, the other three front-line people constantly attacking (when not guarding), and the others on magic leaf duty, they pulled off a battle of attrition and won after two hours of monotonous battle.

The drops were … interesting. They got ¥5,000 and a whopping thirteen experience, but the loot was priceless. They received Totsuka Caestus for their troubles, a weapon for Tsuna. It had an attack of 408, which turned his attacks into overkill, with an accuracy of 96, which meant he rarely whiffed. It also greatly increased the rate at which he’d do critical attacks.

Tsuna immediately swapped to using them as he explained to the others what they were.

“We absolutely need to keep hunting this dude down, then,” Ken said. “Maybe he’s got S-rank weapons for all of us.”

“We need to save first,” Sin pointed out. “And with as long as that took, we can maybe, if we’re lucky, get in three a day so long as we send clones in to handle school for us.”

Tsuna checked the time and shook his head. “Let’s go save. If my phone is accurate, we can try for another one before we would need to have a proper lunch.”

They did get lucky and employed the same tactics, prevailing after another two hour slog. Because Tsuna was on healer duty he was not able to put those new fist weapons to good use to shorten the fight. The loot that time, however, was not a weapon. Instead they got armor, a Godly Robe, which gave +10 to all stats, defense of 375, and evade of 15.

“Huh,” Ken said during lunch, which they took back at the TV World entrance. “So clearly, it’s not just weapons.”

“Which means we might also see accessories,” Chikusa said.

“Shall we flip for it?” he asked, and was immediately and soundly shut down, told to wear it himself, as their leader. “Okay, okay. You can flip for the next one, I guess.”

Sadly, they spent the next several hours wandering the club looking for another Reaper and did not run into one, though they did get a good bit of experience, money, and loot. They exited in good enough time for Tsuna to grab a shower before heading to the Dojima house to make dinner.

####  27 June 2011, Monday

They had been at it for several hours before they ran into another Reaper, and once that one was defeated they received a weapon for Daemon which, unlike Tsuna’s drop, which greatly increased his critical rate, reduced magic damage he took by thirty percent. It was comparable in terms of damage and evasion.

After lunch they went trawling again for another one, but failed to track one down, which greatly annoyed Tsuna. “I would like to come back after dinner, but I don’t want to leave Nanako alone in the house.”

Hayato shook his head. “True, you could do that and then turn back, but too much of that will just see you exhausted.”

“Well, we’ll just keep trying, until we’re all outfitted with weapons and armor.” He grabbed a shower, then headed to the Dojima house.

Dojima rolled in after they had finished eating and were parked in front of the TV for some mindless entertainment.

“…I’m home.” His uncle sounded tired.

“Oh, welcome back!” Nanako greeted. “Um, Dad…”

“Later, Nanako,” Dojima said dismissively.

“B-But, this paper…” she said, getting up to hand it to him.

“ ‘Scheduling of Parent-Teacher Interviews’? A survey, huh…?”

Nanako stared at him, her expression hardening. “…Fine. It’s fine… It’s fine already! You don’t have to write anything! You don’t have to come! It’s just another case to you, right? It’s more work, isn’t it? Bad people and everyone else are more important to you than me, huh!? You’re not ‘real’… You’re not my ‘real’ dad!” she ranted, then dashed out the front door.

Dojima blinked stupidly for a moment. “N-Nanako! Wait! What’s gotten into her…?”

Tsuna sighed at the man’s obliviousness. “Let’s go look for her.”

“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right. Now’s not the time to stand around asking questions,” Dojima said, nodding. “I’ll go check Junes. Tsuna-kun, you look around the shopping district! I’m counting on you!”

“On it,” he said, then took off. He didn’t honestly expect her to be there, but diligently checked the entire area anyway. He had just finished when he heard, “Tsuna!” When he turned he could see Sin jogging toward him.

“I, uh, ran into Dojima-san at Junes, and he told me what happened.”

Tsuna’s brow went up, but given that there were people walking through the area, could understand the subterfuge. “I’m thinking I should check the river,” he said, remembering that Nanako had confided in him that one time that the family would go there together, when Chisato was still alive.

Sin nodded. “Yeah. I’ll at least go with you.”

He had barely entered the flood plain when he heard his uncle call out, “Tsuna-kun, did you find Nanako!? Damn it, where is she?”

Tsuna spotted a small figure down by the river, at one of covered picnic tables, and pointed. “Over there?”

Dojima perked up and headed that way as Sin gave Tsuna’s arm a squeeze and melted into the shadows.

“Nanako!” Dojima said, more quietly, when Tsuna got close enough, “Could you … talk to her? I’m not her ‘real father’, huh? Tsuna-kun, you should go pick her up. She’ll listen to you… Sorry about this. As long as Nanako is okay … I’m fine. Please.”

“Okay,” he said, noticing that his uncle looked highly conflicted. He continued on and came to a stop in front of his cousin.

Nanako looked up slowly; she looked like she was about to start crying. “Onii-san…”

“Let’s go home,” he said softly, holding out his hand. After he had hers firmly in his he said, “Your father is the one who found you first.”

“…He was looking for me? Did Dad say anything about the river? Did he forget about Mom…? He never talks about her. I wanna see Mom…”

Somehow that counted as a rank.

“Dad must’ve forgotten about Mom. There aren’t any pictures of her at home. He probably threw them all away… Is he going to throw me away, too?”

Tsuna shook his head. “Not a chance. He hasn’t forgotten, either. He’s just having a very hard time dealing with your mother not … being here anymore. And seeing her face, just makes it all … real, that she’s gone.”

“Let’s go home, together,” she said, then started walking.

Dojima was either hiding in his room or had stayed out to walk, because he wasn’t visible when they got back. Tsuna waited for her to get ready for bed, then tucked her in.

####  28 June 2011, Tuesday

Tsuna specifically tried leaning on his intuition in order to find a Reaper and tracked one down a half hour into their morning session. The loot that time was an accessory, an Omnipotent Orb, which negated all damage except for Almighty. It was unanimously voted that Tsuna would get the first one.

That Daemon was in the active party and had an upgraded weapon meant it took less time to bring Leather-and-Chains down, so they hoped if they could get enough of them with upgrades it would take far less healing and time.

After a quick stop back at the TV World entrance for an auto-save and while hunting down the next one Mukuro said, “Do you think that maybe weapon drops only happen for people actively fighting? The robes and that orb would work for any of us, but…”

“Mm, maybe,” Daemon said. “Both so far have been for people up front. That’ll be something of a pain if it is true, if only because of healer duty.”

“On the other hand, if we can all get upgraded,” Xeul said, “we won’t have a reason to hunt it down again, since the other rewards are so poor, and it’s not like we _need_ the money from selling off extras.”

“We can always keep the active party static until all four of us are outfitted,” he said, “then swap one person, along with the armor and accessory, so they’re better protected. Try to get their weapon, and swap again. If nothing else, we shouldn’t have to have all three of us constantly healing if we’re only dealing with Almighty damage.”

Everyone nodded, then got ready when they ran into another Reaper. That one gained them a weapon for Hayato, and then it was time for lunch. Tsuna leaned on his intuition again and tracked down a third Reaper, which gained them another Omnipotent Orb, which went to Chikusa after a quick hat draw.

####  29 June 2011, Wednesday

Chikusa got his weapon that morning, along with a Godly Robe, and Daemon also got a robe. The length of the battle had shortened by a fair amount with all front-line fighters actively wailing on the Reaper, which was welcomed. The battles were boring as fuck once they had a rhythm down.

It was after Tsuna had showered and was about to head home that Ken said, “Any reason we can’t all just turn back twenty-four hours and repeat the day?”

Tsuna started to groan, but instead shook his head. “I can’t see it. Yeah, we could do that, but we’d run the risk of running into ourselves in the club. Fuck. And by the time we have access to the presumed next dungeon, we’d also presumably already be done with the Reaper.”

Ken scowled and nodded.

####  30 June 2011, Thursday

Their session finished outfitting the front-line, with Hayato gaining armor and an orb, and Daemon getting an orb.

“At this rate?” Sin said. “Another four to six days.”

Tsuna nodded. “Who wants to swap for tomorrow?”

Sin raised a hand, followed by Hayato.

“Okay,” he said. “Hayato can swap his armor and accessory with Sin, and once we get that done…”

“And after that, we can just go back to grinding,” Daemon said. “Or sneaking out of town to visit a theme park or something, just for a break. The weather’s going to hold up for at least the next week, so we don’t need to worry about that.”

“Or a picnic,” Chikusa suggested. “I could see us all going on a picnic.”

Smiles went around at the idea.

“Sounds like a plan.”


	11. λ21: 11: 01-25 July 2011

## λ21  
11: 01-25 July 2011

####  01 July 2011, Wednesday

It took a bit longer for the first Reaper, given that Sin had been swapped in and was on healing duty, but they got drops for his weapon, another set of armor, and another orb. It was decided that Xeul would swap with Sin for the next day.

“Um… I lost the paper I was supposed to return to school,” Nanako said after dinner. “What should I do? The teacher will yell at me.”

“I’ll help you look for it,” he offered.

“Thank you, onii-san.” Despite that she looked on the verge of tears.

“Do you remember where you last saw it?”

Nanako shook her head. “I’ll start in my room?”

He nodded. “I’ll start down here, okay?”

His cousin flitted off up the stairs, so Tsuna began a systematic search of the living area. When he got to the table in the kitchen he glanced at the papers his uncle often went through. On top was that Parent-Teacher Interviews paper that had caused so much trouble. The word “Anytime” had been written in for the “Day Requested” box, which was interesting.

There was also a photograph there, underneath it. It looked like a family photo. “Nanako-chan!” he called up the stairs. “I think I found it!”

She came racing down and looked at him expectantly, so he handed the paper over.

“It says ‘Anytime’ on it. So … he can come anytime? I see…” She giggled for some reason.

He then handed over the photo. “This was there, too.”

“Huh? Is this a photograph?” she said, looking at it intently. “Oh… This is… Mom. This little baby in the middle… That’s me… Dad’s smiling. …Why did Dad stop smiling?”

“He’s lonely, too, Nanako-chan.”

“Dad’s … lonely…? I see. So that’s it. After Mom died, I was lonely, but… I’m not the only one who’s sad that Mom’s not here anymore… Dad… He was lonely, too… I’m sorry, Dad.” As a rank message flashed up she stared at the photo and continued, “Thank you, onii-san. …Will Dad ever smile like this again?”

He left her there with the memory of her mother, and went upstairs for something less depressing, like setting people on fire in Skyrim.

####  02 July 2011, Saturday

They gained two robes and one orb that day, which was a bit annoying, as it meant Xeul would have to remain in the active party until a weapon dropped for him, but at least they had found three reapers.

“Let’s take tomorrow off,” he said. “This music is really getting on my nerves.”

“I think we’re all ready to shoot whatever is causing that,” Sin said.

“Um, you know the photo you found last night?” Nanako said after dinner. “I gave it back to Dad. He looked happy and smiled at me. Onii-san… I love my dad.”

“He loves you, too.” And he did believe that, he just knew that Dojima had a generally shitty way of showing it.

Nanako smiled cheerfully. “Dad didn’t forget about how we used to pick flowers at the Samegawa River. He smiled at me and said, ‘You remember, too?’ Dad loves Mom. …I feel sorry for him, losing someone he loves.”

“He still has you,” he pointed out.

“Yeah!” she said, nodding. “I won’t go anywhere! I’m glad to be Dad’s daughter. It’s your turn to talk!” she said as a rank message flashed by.

He hummed. “How about we play a game?”

She cheered. “Then, uh, I know! Let’s play cards!”

####  03 July 2011, Sunday

The weekly shopping was handled as per usual, plus a quick trip to Tatsumi Textiles for more materials, and Nanako was escorted safely home and everything put away. He and Sin then took off to go visit the shrine. The fox had another ema for him which, by his count, would be the tenth.

_I want to see the Guardian of the Samegawa once more before I die._

He hummed. “Sounds like a fish.” Outside he showed it to Sin, who had the same thought. “We can at least go check the river to see if whoever this is is there.”

“And your intuition says?”

“Well, yeah, it’s leaning that way. I expect it might be the same guy who gave me the fishing rod.”

Once they got there the old man was present, staring out at the water. He sighed and said, “The Guardian won’t let me see him,” then noticed Tsuna standing there. “You know what I’m talkin’ about, right? Samegawa has a Guardian in the river. I’ve only seen him once, when I was younger. It was a rainy day and I felt a tug I’d never felt before, and when I pulled… He was huge! Not only that, but there was this godly aura around him.

“I fought him for hours, but I lost ’im. No… I know he was just toying with me. I kept on fishin’ for years and years, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him one more time, but… I’m an old man, and the strength is gone from these arms. Maybe it’s time to hang up my rod for good. …I just want to see him with my own two eyes one more time before I go to the big bait shop in the sky.” The old man turned away and stared off into the distance.

Tsuna and Sin wandered off. The weather was cloudy, so the odds of either of them being able to land the fish the old man wanted was next to nil, and his intuition voted against the idea of even trying.

A Mist message flashed up for them: Will the rod you have even work? Maybe if you showed him a big fish? His eyesight might be bad enough…

Then: I just found one I stashed in stasis. I put it in the kitchen sink. Grab it and see.

“Worth a try,” he said quietly, looked around for anyone in the vicinity, then opened a window long enough to get the fish. They walked back to the old man so Tsuna could show it off.

“Boy! That huge fish you got there… It’s not bad. …Will you listen to my final wish?”

Tsuna smiled serenely and nodded, as if he hadn’t already just heard it.

“Your skill, your eyes… I want to see you give it a try. I want you to land the Guardian! You can do it! Please, this old man’s beggin’ you!”

“I’ll catch it,” he replied.

“I see, I see! All right, I’ll give you this! My Angler’s Set. I carved this rod by hand, with all my fishin’ spirit. If anything can catch the Guardian, it’s this. …Oh, and try it on rainy days. It’ll be harder for the fish to notice your presence when it’s raining. And, this is my ultimate fishin’ advice! Listen close, because I ain’t gonna repeat myself.

“If you start pullin’ when a fish pokes the bait, the fish’ll run away, right? So … if you don’t want to catch that fish, pull the bait away before it bites! You’ll keep your bait, and the fish you don’t want will swim away. Just keep repeating that. You get my drift? I’m counting on you!”

Tsuna nodded and wandered off again with Sin.

An old lady dressed entirely in black, complete with a veiled hat, noticed him as he neared the stairs and said, “It’s a nice day today. Will you take the time to talk to an old woman?”

He knew something weird was up when Sin kept right on walking. He opened a window on his lover, smiled serenely, and said, “Sure.”

She smiled gently. “My, I’m so happy. Good day, um…”

“Ah, Dojima Tsuna.”

“Dojima Tsuna… Tsuna-chan, is it? A lovely name. It suits you. I’ve lived here all my life, but … I don’t know you.”

“I moved here a few months ago,” he said.

“My, is that so? If you’re from the city, you may think it’s a bit inconvenient here, but I think it’s a nice town.”

“I think it is, too,” he replied.

She laughed lightly. “That’s nice to hear. It’s good to hear pleasant things about your home. Oh, dear. I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Kuroda Hisano. …I am Death.”

Tsuna took that in stride. For all he knew she meant she _would be_ dying soon or something similar. “What do you mean?”

“…I’m sorry. I’m saying foolish things. Tsuna-chan, you’re still not used to this town, are you? If you ever have any problems, I can give you some advice.” She laughed lightly again. “Though I’m sure you’d rather spend your time with younger people.”

Tsuna didn’t so much as twitch when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Death Arcana.

—flashed up in front of him.

“I hope we can meet again. Good-bye,” she said, then turned her attention to the cloudy sky.

Tsuna nodded and hastened off to catch up to Sin, who had stopped and looked rather confused.

“What the hell just happened?”

“Not entirely sure,” he said. “Had a conversation with a lady who called herself Death, then said she was just saying foolish things. You didn’t even hear her, and kept right on walking.”

“Something supernatural?”

“I’m going to assume so. But since my intuition isn’t screaming out a warning, or even quietly murmuring, I’m not going to worry about it.”

“Right, well, what do you say we go have that picnic with the others.”

####  04 July 2011, Monday

The first Reaper dropped a weapon for Xeul, so he swapped out with Ken, and also gave him his Omnipotent Orb. The next Reaper dropped a weapon for Ken, and the one after dropped another robe.

“Two more days, hopefully,” Mukuro said.

“It’s supposed to rain on Friday and Saturday,” Chikusa pointed out.

“Which means it’s a good bet that the cycle will be complete come Sunday,” he said, “and we might gain another rank for the Fool Arcana, if nothing else. Either way, we should have this Reaper hunt done, and can—I hesitate to say it—look forward to a new dungeon.”

####  06 July 2011, Wednesday

“Thank the lord,” Sin said, heaving a sigh.

All of them had obtained Reaper weapons, Godly Robes, and Omnipotent Orbs, which meant they could ignore the hell out of the club from then on, with the possible exception of a secondary boss that might pop up later.

“After this much time spent there I’m almost looking forward to playing therapist again,” he said, “though I’ve no doubt I’ll get annoyed with that again soon enough.” He shook his head and went off to take a shower.

They had finished up early enough that he could go looking for a Social Link to spend time with and, wanting something different to do, went looking for Kanji. He found him outside Tatsumi Textiles, staring out at the street.

“Gotta warn you—there’s nothing fun here,” Kanji said, then turned toward the shop. “Hey, Ma, I’m home.” When there was no answer he took on a confused expression. “She ain’t here… What’s she doin’ leaving the store open…?”

“Kan-chan!”

They both turned to see the cook from the Chinese diner headed their way. “There you are! Your mother’s in the hospital!”

“The hospital…?”

“Hey, let’s go,” he said.

Kanji nodded after a second, then took off running.

As they entered the place Tsuna found himself wondering how it was that Inaba even had a hospital what with how the town was even smaller than Namimori.

“Ma!” Kanji shouted.

Tsuna followed his gaze to see Tatsumi-san standing there, looking perfectly well.

“You all right!? You were taken to the hospital!? Someone did something to you!?”

“Goodness, but you look pale,” she replied calmly.

“Never mind me!! What about you!?” Kanji paused and seemed to finally take in that his mother looked fine. “Huh? You’re okay?”

“I wasn’t taken to the hospital,” she explained. “I took someone. The poor thing got hit by a bicycle right in front of our shop. He hit his head, so I had a doctor examine him. He said there’s no damage, thank goodness. The one who hit him was a boy from your school. When he saw the poor child fall, he ran away. Why don’t you find him and give him a scolding?”

Kanji slashed his hand through the air. “Cut the crap! You’ve got no idea how I felt!”

“I’m fine. Your mother isn’t kicking the bucket that easily,” she said. “It’s not like you to get so worried over such a little thing.”

“Shut up, you old cow!” Kanji shouted, then ran off down the hallway.

Tsuna sent an apologetic look toward Tatsumi-san, then followed. He found Kanji sitting on one of the benches and took a seat next to him.

“Sorry,” Kanji muttered. “Looks like it was no big deal.”

“Which is good.”

“Well, yeah, but…” Kanji’s face was pink from embarrassment. “I thought I… Uh… Sorry for draggin’ you around. If I’d been by myself, I mighta been even more scared.” He huffed. “Hope I can repay the favor.” As a rank message flashed by Kanji continued, “I-I’m goin’ home.”

Tsuna watched him stomp back down the hallway, as if daring anyone to comment, and disappear out the front entrance. He got up and followed, though he paused when he came even with Tatsumi-san, who sighed.

“That boy… We were both going home… He didn’t have to run away like that. Oh,” she said, glancing over at him. “You’re Tsuna-kun? You came to our store several times, with the little girl, right? I’ve been hearing a lot about you from Kanji. ‘Senpai this’ and ‘senpai that’… He must really like you.

“I’m sorry to have made you both come all the way here. He hates hospitals, you see. His father … my husband died here. Kanji happened to be somewhere else when he collapsed. So I think he was scared today. But, it’s good to see you. He’s always had trouble getting along with people. He didn’t have any friends like you before.”

“…Because of his hobbies?” he ventured.

“Oh, he told you?”

‘In a manner of speaking.’

“He would rather play house instead of catch, or go to home ec instead of PE. So he never had any male friends, but the girls didn’t accept him, either. After a while he started getting into fights every day and bleaching his hair. I was worried about him. But lately, he seems to be having some fun. Please take care of him.” She gave him a nod and headed out.

‘So, that happened,’ he thought, then headed home.

####  07 July 2011, Thursday

He “ran into” Kanji again after school let out and the two of them wandered up to the hill overlooking the town. After taking seats at the table there Kanji said, “I’ve always liked it up here. Being able to see my house and school and everything from up here… It makes me feel small. …Uh… When you met Ma at the hospital… She say anything about me?”

Tsuna did a shrug-nod combo. “Plenty.” In his peripheral vision he could see Kanji’s face tint pink.

“That’s what I thought… Well… Wish I could quit being afraid of hospitals. I gotta get stronger…” After a quiet pause Kanji looked to the side in surprise. “Huh? That kid… He was with Ma at the hospital.” Kanji switched seats to the bench the child was sitting on. “Yo, kid, what’re you doing here by yourself?”

“Uh… Um… Nothing…”

“Then how come you look like you’re gonna cry?” Kanji asked bluntly.

“I … lost a doll… I lost the knit rabbit doll that Sana-chan let me borrow,” the kid admitted tearfully. “Taka-kun said it was girly and stomped on it. It got all dirty. And he said, ‘If you’re a man, then throw it away!’ And I … threw the doll in the river… And it got washed away…” The kid burst into tears at the admission. “What should I do!? I hafta give it back to Sana-chan! She liked that bunny … and I… I…”

“So why are you here? You ran away?”

The kid sniffled and hiccuped.

“…Ya dumb kid!”

‘Well, it’s not like I should expect Kanji to suddenly develop tact,’ he thought as the kid started crying again.

“C’mon! Don’t just sit there! Oh, uh… I’m gonna go now.”

“You planning to look for it?” he asked. “I’ll go with you.”

Kanji’s eyes went wide, then he nodded.

They started off for the river, the sniffling kid skulking along behind them, and eventually reached the bank. Kanji waded on in and started looking around.

Tsuna knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of the rabbit suddenly appearing, but he admired Kanji for trying, and for unintentionally giving the kid a lesson at the same time.

“I-I’ll help,” the kid said quietly and took a tentative step toward the water.

“You shut up,” Kanji said. “Stay where you are do you don’t get in the way! Senpai, make sure he doesn’t come in after me! Whoa, this is colder than I expected…” A half hour later he finally admitted defeat and waded back out.

“I-I’m sorry,” the kid said. “I’m going to apologize to Sana-chan. Even if she’s mad, I’ll still say I’m sorry.”

“Uh, yeah, well, if you do find the rabbit, make sure you give it to her,” Kanji said, then thought better of it. “Yo, hold up. What kind of rabbit was it? Spill it.”

“Um, a knit rabbit?”

“All right, I got it. You apologize to this ‘Sana-chan’. You’re the one who threw it away. It might not be the same, but I’ll get you a new one… So let it go with that.”

“M-Mister…”

“Who you callin’ mister!?” Kanji yelled.

The kid startled and took off, presumably to go apologize.

“Geez… I’m still in high school. This’s the prime of my youth! …Do I really look that old? Maybe it’s the eyebrows. Anyway, sorry ’bout dragging you into this.”

Tsuna shrugged. “I did offer to help. You’re giving him a new one, then?”

Kanji’s face pinked again. “It was like I understood how he felt. Wanting to be accepted, afraid of being left out, doing stuff you shouldn’t… Then taking the one person you shouldn’t make cry and making ’em bawl… So, y’know, I thought maybe I could help him. Was I going too easy on him?”

Kanji continued to look embarrassed as a rank message flashed by, then wriggled his nose. “Ah… Hm? Guh, I feel like sneezing but it won’t come out. This sucks. I might be catching a cold. I better head home.” He gave a wave and stomped off.

####  08 July 2011, Friday

As it was raining, after spending the school hours with his family, Tsuna headed off to the river so he could attempt to catch the Guardian. It took a while, but he finally got the fucker and held it up once he’d wrestled it out of the water.

The old man practically pounced on him. “Oooooh!! Th-Th-That… That must be!” He devolved into a coughing fit for a good thirty seconds. “You scared me. I thought I was gonna die… So, that thing you’ve got there must be the Guardian. Congratulations, youngster!!

“I… I don’t have any more regrets. Now I can live out the rest of my life in peace… _Yeah right_! I’m gonna fish! You hear me!? I’m going to _fish_! Ya brat! Why don’t we have a competition, eh!?” The old guy started laughing creakily. “That reminds me, I should visit the shrine…”

Tsuna hauled his Guardian off to get away from the crazy.

The Midnight Channel was plain static, so he went to bed.

####  09 July 2011, Saturday

He spent the day at Tokyo Disney with his family, then visited the shrine when they got back, to see the fox. The fox was up on the roof of the shrine howling, but when it noticed him it jumped down and nosed at the offertory box.

Tsuna took a look and realized it was empty. Before he could react to that a man’s voice came from the entrance.

“All right, outta the way! Out of the way, I said!”

He pivoted and saw a construction crew. “Right, I’ll be off, then,” he said, mostly to himself, but also to the fox, which had darted into hiding.

The Midnight Channel was plain static again, so he went to bed.

####  10 July 2011, Sunday

He woke to the sound of sirens; the second he sat up a window opened, showing Daemon.

“We did a scan the second we heard sirens. They found a body. It looks like it was Morooka. We can talk about it after you go shopping, just… Your cousin doesn’t need to see it. The route you normally take should be fine.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

He headed downstairs to have breakfast with his cousin, took the time to clean up, then headed out with her to Junes, making sure to avoid the crime scene. Sin joined them as usual, and they avoided any mention at all of what was wrong, though Nanako did have a slight frown on her face up until she spotted her favorite place in the world.

She was safely delivered home, the groceries put away, and then he and Sin found a secluded spot and stepped _Between_ to the Rokudo house.

“So, what the fuck?”

“We’ve been keeping an eye on it,” Daemon said. “The body was found hanging upside down on an apartment’s rooftop railing, the same way as the others.”

“We haven’t been in there for the past three days,” he said slowly, “and there was nothing on the Midnight Channel. So… This is either a coincidence or…”

“Well—”

Daemon was cut off when the TV screen lit up for no reason. A moment later Teddie came through it.

‘Oh, fuck me,’ he thought.

“Hiya!” Teddie said happily; he was back to looking like his old self. “There’s an exit there, it just never occurred to me to use it before! But spending time with you all sparked my curiosity about this world! I did wonder if it was a good idea, but my feet started moving before I could decide.”

“…It’s good to see you, Teddie,” he said. “Your fur’s all nice again.”

“Yeah!”

“Uh, I have to ask… Did anyone get thrown in late last night?”

Teddie looked confused for a moment. “No one was there but me even until the fog settled.”

A look went around.

“Why?” Teddie asked and tilted to the side.

“Because someone was found this morning, in the same kind of circumstances as the people who died. We wanted to be sure they weren’t thrown in.”

“Nope! No one was there but me.”

“A copycat?” Chikusa said.

“Hey, hey, I wanna go somewhere,” Teddie said, clearly not understanding the situation.

Tsuna blinked slowly when he got a somewhat inexplicable rank message for the Fool Arcana. “It’s much too hot out there for you to run around like that,” he said, trying to stall.

“Someone could be cashing in on the murders, yeah,” Sin said. “Figured they could slip one in for themselves, maybe.”

“Or this is related, but since the last three people were saved, they thought using the TV wouldn’t work? Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense unless the girl was used as bait.”

“To lure us into a sense of safety, since we already got her out.”

“Actually…” Teddie said.

“Right.”

“I’m no longer a hollow bear!” Teddie announced, then cackled.

Everyone focused on the bear.

“I trained and I trained, hoping to someday be more… And now I finally have an inside!”

“…What?” he said inanely.

Teddie reached up and started pulling his zipper, which was not exactly easy given his stubby little arms. After a short struggle he was able to flip the top of the costume back to reveal a blond, blue-eyed teen boy. Who sparkled a little. “Hiya!”

“Kami-sama,” he muttered. Teddie’s human form looked like every bishonen lover’s wet dream.

“Do you have any spare clothes?” Teddie asked. “I’m kinda like a newborn at the moment…”

Ken shook himself, then disappeared into one of the bedrooms. He was back shortly thereafter with a stack of clothes. “Yeah, uh, follow me. You can get changed into these.”

Teddie squeaked off with Ken and they were back shortly. Heaven only knew where the costume had been hidden.

“Uh, where were we?”

“Morooka, and the girl,” Daemon said helpfully.

“Right. Shit. Teddie?”

“Huh-uh?” Teddie aimed ocean-blue eyes at him innocently. “Yes, senpai?”

He smiled. “We’re going to go out, so I want you to not run off, please. And please, don’t talk about anyone we rescued while inside the TV, okay? Those people don’t remember they were in there. It was too traumatizing for them, so they forgot.”

“Oh! Okay, senpai,” Teddie said, nodding.

“Let’s go, then. We can get something cool while we’re out. Topsicles or something.”

Outside Teddie immediately gasped, then said, “It’s so different and clear and pretty! And it’s really hot.”

“Yeah, it’s summer. It’s always very hot during the summer. Let’s head to the shopping district,” he said. ‘At least he doesn’t squeak when he’s out of costume, though the sparkles are kind of distracting.’

They hit up the ice cream stall and got some frozen treats, then continued walking. Teddie continued to make happy noises at all the new sights, and as they neared the tofu shop Tsuna noticed that Blue Hat was there.

“Ah… I had a feeling you’d come,” she said.

Tsuna’s brow went up. Clearly she was a lot more observant than they’d given her credit for. “Huh?”

“Are you here to ingratiate yourselves with Kujikawa Rise now?”

“Oh, I remember seeing you before,” he said. “You were investigating something, right?”

“That’s right. I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself. My name is Shirogane Naoto. I’m investigating the multiple murders that have occurred here. Mind if I ask you a few questions on the subject?”

Tsuna shrugged. “Sure.”

“The latest victim, Morooka Kinshiro… He was a teacher at the school you all attend, correct?”

“Yes.”

“The public is focused on the fact that he is associated with the second victim’s school. But in truth, that’s irrelevant. What intrigues me is the inconsistency. This Morooka … has never appeared on television. What do you make of that?”

“Assuming the other two were on the TV—which if I recall correctly they were—then the fact that Morooka-sensei was not means there’s an inconsistency, as you mentioned.”

She didn’t call him on the fact that he’d basically just shuffled her words and spit them back out. “Well, we’ll leave it at that for now. For my part, I’d like to solve this case as quickly as possible. I’ll be keeping an eye on you all. Well, until we meet again.” She sauntered off.

“Right,” he said slowly.

“We’re clearly going to have to keep a closer eye on her,” Daemon said quietly.

Everyone (Teddie excepted) nodded, which somehow counted as another rank for the Fool Arcana. Tsuna gave up on the possibility of understanding at that point.

They continued to walk around town so that Teddie could have a look at what they considered the real world, then headed back to the house and into the air-conditioned interior. After enthusing some more about what a great day he’d had, Teddie entered the TV and disappeared.

Tsuna immediately dropped a sound barrier in front of the thing and rolled his eyes. “Fuck. Let’s go to the kitchen.”

They settled in with cold drinks and some snacks. “On a side note, I gained two ranks for Fool today. We’re up to six.”

That caused some confusion, but it got shrugged off.

“I just don’t know what to think right now,” Daemon said. “It could be a copycat, it could be that Kujikawa was a fake-out and Morooka was the real target, but given that he wasn’t on TV…”

“We can probably expect Kujikawa to start attending Yasogami High,” Chikusa said. “I doubt that’ll make much of a difference to anything, though.”

Tsuna sat back and sipped his drink, waiting to see if his intuition would kick anything forward, then sighed. “I’m getting nothing. And I’m going to set up a secondary Bounding Box, one that covers just the living area.”

“In case Teddie shows up at an awkward hour?” Mukuro said.

“Yeah, basically.”

The news that evening had a piece on Morooka’s death.

“Good evening, this is Niteline News. Our top story for the night concerns the latest developments in an ongoing story. The serial murder case in Inaba has claimed a third victim. The news shocked local residents, who have not seen another murder in three months, and assumed the spree had reached its end. The deceased taught at a local high school. Since his body was found arranged in a similar manner as the last two victims—”

Nanako interrupted his concentration by saying, “What’s wrong? Was it someone you know? …He died?”

Given that she looked scared he said, “I’m here with you.”

She relaxed a little and nodded. “I’m all right…”

“This marks the second consecutive death, after Konishi Saki-san’s, where the target was involved with Yasogami High. Morooka-san was known for his strict teaching methods, and is said to have had constant friction with his students. The police will be pursuing this line of inquiry, and are planning to begin a large-scale investigation tomorrow. We now turn to our reporter at the scene for more details.”

Nanako spoke up again, looking sad. “Dad won’t be coming home again today.”

“How about we make a doll tonight?” he suggested.

She brightened up immediately. “Let’s! I’ll go get my stuff!” She jumped up and raced off toward the stairs.

Tsuna grabbed a few things he kept stored out of her reach, then returned to the table, taking a moment to switch the channel.

He opened his eyes to see the Velvet Room and heaved a sigh.

“Welcome … to the Velvet Room,” Igor said in his balls-lacking voice. “It’s been quite some time. Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams. How are things proceeding? Are you gradually drawing nearer to a solution to the mystery?”

“Yes,” he said, because what else was there to say?

“Excellent. The season has changed, but your future is not yet closed. In time, a path will open to you. Our true reason for calling you here tonight is to provide a new form of assistance to help you achieve that.

“Fusing Personas… Have you been using our services diligently? The aid we will henceforth provide is an advanced form of fusion. I speak of the power to fuse four or more Personas at once. I am quite certain that this will enable you to command even stronger powers.

“Now … your journey will soon reach its climax. And as a result, many challenges—which I cannot forsee at present—await you. Most interesting.” Igor paused to chuckle creepily. “Well, until we meet again… Farewell.”

####  11 July 2011, Monday

They hung around the house again, watching movies (mainly so that Teddie couldn’t come through) and keeping an eye on the police. They finally caught a break when someone left a case file unattended on a desk.

Tsuna opened a window directly over it while his Mists kept windows open to watch for officers and gloss the area with illusion, and used his flames to poke through the contents. The name of the suspect was Kubo Mitsuo.

“Huh,” Sin said. “He’s the Fish-Eyed kid who tried to get Amagi to go out with him, back a few months.”

“Yeah, I remember him.” He kept reading to see what they had on him, then closed the file. “Well, we can keep checking. I seriously doubt he’s been responsible for anyone aside from Morooka, if him. He might have wanted his fifteen minutes of fame, though in a country like this… Japan is famous for always getting a conviction, and if it’s not for the murder of Morooka, it’ll be for wasting the police’s time.”

“Blue Hat looks dejected,” Mukuro said.

Tsuna looked over to see that Mukuro had a window on the girl. She did look dejected. She was staring at some of the adult officers, though she turned away moments later and moped out of the station.

“Odds she had nothing to do with the arrest and is upset that she’s being ignored?”

“No bet.”

The clones arrived at that point and reported that they had a new homeroom teacher, a Kashiwagi Noriko, and she was not being well received. The girls in class seemed to think the woman was trying to compete with teenagers like Kujikawa, and the clones reported that she was far too sensual to be in a classroom setting.

“Brilliant,” he said dryly. “Well, it’s early, but I’m going to go see if the construction at the shrine is complete.”

When he got there he saw that the offertory box and torii were gleaming with gold. A child wandered in and said, “Kami-sami, you helped my friend when he needed you. Please, grant my wish, too. I brought some of my allowance.” The kid tossed the money into the offertory box and wandered off.

A lady wandered in next. “Oh, Kami-sama, granter of our wishes! Please, hear mine! I’ll give you as much as you like!” She, too, tossed money into the box, then wandered off.

Of course, Tsuna couldn’t help but wonder how that was going to work considering he had been the one granting all those wishes. Did that make him a god now?

The fox howled happily and offered him another ema. It had fox footprints all over it. A rank message flashed by, then—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds … shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Ongyo-ki, the ultimate form of the Hermit Arcana.

—followed it.

####  12 July 2011, Tuesday

Unfortunately, Chie roped him into helping her study for the upcoming exams, so Tsuna swapped out with his clone and spent a few hours after school helping her in the library.

####  13 July 2011, Wednesday

He was waylaid by Yukiko and again swapped with his clone. They went to Junes, to the grocery department. “I wrote down everything I need, so this shouldn’t take long.”

“Been practicing, then? Gotten any better?”

“That’s… I hope so.” She smiled sheepishly. “I’ve been studying the basics of the basics. But it’s not turning out quite like it does in the books, even though I’m following the directions.”

“All you can do is keep practicing.”

“Yes. Practice makes perfect,” she said with a nod. “I think there’s no point unless I do it alone. Our cooks help me out all the time. At first they just give me advice, but eventually they take the knife from me. So even if the meal turns out perfectly, it doesn’t mean anything that way. I told them to leave me alone, but they still stay and watch. Are they that worried about my cooking?”

There were a million things he could have said. “First and foremost? I think they care about you.”

“They … care about me? Do… Do you really think so? Last time, the head chef took the knife from me, shouting, ‘I can’t stand to watch anymore!’ and made the rest. The waitress saw it and said to the head chef, ‘Yuki-chan wants to make it herself, even if it’s awful.’ Before I knew it I was ‘studying how to cook for a boy I like’. My parents got involved and it exploded from there.” Yukiko giggled. “Funny, isn’t it? But… Maybe it wasn’t a lie.”

Tsuna nearly groaned when she blushed.

“You’ll try my food again, right?”

He wanted to sink into a hole and emerge on the other side of the world. Yukiko was a nice girl, but so, so wrong for someone like him. Maybe Sin could give him pointers on letting a girl down easy? Hopefully? He just knew his family was watching and rolling around in laughter.

As a rank message flashed by she said, “Oh! Yeah, shopping!”

All he could think to say was, “Have you asked Chie-san if her parents would mind you using their kitchen?”

A window opened into his room and his family was on the other side, grinning at him.

“Bite me.”

“What a lady killer,” Mukuro said.

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “I do _not_ need some teenage girl crushing on me! And I can’t be an asshole to get her to… Would I be an asshole if I accidentally-on-purpose kissed Sin in her line of view? I mean, I flat out told Chie that I’m into guys, but maybe Yukiko didn’t hear? She is kind of oblivious. Fucking hell, it’s like having a cooking-impaired, teenage version of my mother come on to me! Gah!”

Meanwhile, his family was laughing themselves silly again.

“Shit.” He got into bed and covered himself entirely with the sheet so he didn’t have to see them laughing, even if he had to hear it.

####  14 July 2011, Thursday

Kanji was the one to hail him at school, so Tsuna again swapped with his clone and trundled off to the hill overlooking the town at the blond’s behest. The kid was waiting there, so he assumed this was a follow-up to the last encounter.

“Here’s the stuff I promised ya,” Kanji said, sliding his bag off his shoulder. “N-No complaining, okay?” He took an elaborate bunny doll out of his bag and shoved it at the kid; it had clothes, a ribbon, a hat, and an umbrella.

“Whoa!” the kid said, eagerly accepting it. “This is incredible! Where’d you buy it!?”

Kanji looked stunned. “Huh? Wh-Who cares!?”

“But I want one, too!”

“…Oh. Well, I got one for you,” Kanji said, and produced another elaborate bunny doll from his bag. That one had clothes, shoes, a cap, and a soccer ball.

The kid was practically vibrating with happiness as he took it. “For me!? Thanks!! But where’d you buy it?”

“Er…”

Tsuna rolled his eyes discreetly and said, “Just tell the kid the truth.”

“Er… I-I made it,” Kanji said very quietly.

“You … made these?” The kid blinked owlishly.

“Y-Y’got a problem with that!? If ya think it’s so creepy, then give ’em—”

“Wow!” the kid enthused. “You’re so cool!! Hey, can you make me something else!? Mom _loves_ this kind of stuff!”

“…Huh? S-Sure…” Kanji looked like he was trying to reconcile why the sky was plaid that day.

“You promised!” the kid said happily. “I’m gonna go give this to Sana-chan! Thanks, mister!” He raced off back toward town.

“I’m not that old, dammit,” Kanji muttered, though his lowered face could not hide the pink of embarrassment—and pleasure. “Heh, he said I’m cool.”

“You did an amazing job, Kanji-kun. That’s something to be proud of.”

Kanji toed the ground. “Yeah, but it’s not like sewing’s good for anything…”

Tsuna discreetly rolled his eyes again.

“But y’know… It ain’t a bad feeling,” Kanji said as a rank message flashed by. “This is a great place, huh? The wind is different up here… Never noticed before.”

Tsuna took a seat on one of the benches. “You don’t think I’m weird for teaching my little cousin how to make dolls, do you?”

“Wha—!? N-no, course not.”

“Which reminds me, I really need to get to that place your mother gave me a card for in Okina City. I keep meaning to get yukata made,” he said. “I’ve been teaching my cousin about cooking, too. She’s just not old enough to use scissors and needles and knives without supervision, though. My uncle would have a cow. That’s why I started with fabric glue.”

“D-does she even like the dolls?”

Tsuna blinked. “Well, I hope so. I mean, we make them together every so often. I assumed she was sharing with her friends. Maybe I should ask her.”

“Wh-What kinda stuff you teaching her to cook?”

“Uh, everything, sort of. Not long after I moved here we sat down to work out a menu plan for dinner, for two reasons. One was so I’d know what we needed to buy when we went shopping each week. Two was to make sure I wasn’t making meals she wouldn’t eat. So I explain everything as I go along, and let her do the parts that are safe for her to do.”

“Huh. W-We should prolly get back. I try to help Ma when I can, so…”

Tsuna got up and nodded. “Let’s head back, then.”

####  15 July 2011, Friday

When he got home he and Nanako made dinner together and sat down to eat, but they had only been there a few minutes when his uncle came home, which was mildly surprising considering the suspect they had in custody.

Tsuna got back up to fix a plate for his uncle, but as he was doing so Dojima said, “I was just thinking of making some coffee. All we’ve got is instant, though.”

Tsuna could just imagine the look of horror on Sin’s face.

“How do you take it?”

Tsuna tried his hardest not to grimace. “Uh… Coffee and my stomach just do not agree with each other. I can’t drink it. I’m fine, though. I have some tea.”

Dojima stared at him blankly, then snapped his gaze over to Nanako when she said, “Dad, the news is starting. Oh! Coffee? Can I have some?”

“Sure thing. Plenty of cream and sugar, right?”

“Yeah!”

Tsuna finished fixing the plate for his uncle and returned to the table. He set it down and knelt on his cushion so he could go back to eating. Dojima arrived a minute later with two mugs and set them both down, then took his place.

“Making the coffee is my only job around here,” his uncle said quietly, but he was smiling when he said it. “When I got married, her mother made me promise one thing. She said this is all I have to do around the house. But nobody else can do it. So… Well, you know. It’s habit now.”

As a rank message flashed by he noticed that Dojima looked vaguely embarrassed.

“This is the only promise I can really keep these days… Well, anyway…”

“And now, our next story. On the outskirts of Okina today, a woman bicyclist was hit by a car and died on the scene.”

“Nanako, change the channel,” Dojima said, then abruptly got up and disappeared into his room.

His cousin changed the channel regardless, then to him said, “It was because they showed a story about a traffic accident. Mom died in an accident… I don’t remember it. And Dad won’t talk about it.” She turned back to the TV.

Tsuna felt more than a little conflicted. Over Dojima’s self-inflicted blindness to the way he was hurting his daughter, the way he avoided dealing with his grief by burying himself in work and a seemingly endless search for the person who killed his wife, and how he expected his daughter to be more or less self-sufficient at such a young age.

Tsuna didn’t particularly _want_ to gain ranks with his uncle, and that one had come out of nowhere. He felt that even if he did manage to max out the Social Link with Dojima and things between him and his daughter got better, that the second Dojima Tsunayoshi died a hilariously stupid death (because he would) it would all revert to the sad, lonely household it had been before he arrived.

He turned his attention to the TV and watched a nature show with his cousin, not saying a word.

Daemon showed up once he was comfortably in bed and slid in next to him. Tsuna took the offered comfort and curled into his brother, feeling sad and angry and helpless. His blood family was just so fucked up.

####  16 July 2011, Saturday

“I don’t care that the music makes me mental,” he said. “I’d really like to go kill shit.”

So they went into the TV World, to the club, and wailed the tar out of Shadows for the better part of the day. Once they were out and he and Sin had a chance to clean up, they stepped _Between_ to Okina City so he could arrange for yukata to be made with the fabrics he had purchased at Tatsumi Textiles.

####  17 July 2011, Sunday

Yukiko made noises about wanting to talk when he saw her on his way back from shopping with Nanako, so he returned once everything had been put away and walked with her to the shrine. It made him wonder how things were going with people’s wishes now that he wasn’t running all over creation making them come true.

“I come here every so often. It’s nice and quiet. I visit here with the waitresses, too. Like before a big guest arrives. We make our annual hatsumode visits here. The exam charm was here, too… Once I leave this town … I won’t be able to come here again, will I.” She sounded conflicted.

“…Why?”

“I mean, I couldn’t face my parents again… They expect me to take over the inn when I’m older.”

“Oh, Yuki-chan!” came a woman’s voice.

“Kasai-san… What are you doing here?” Yukiko asked.

“Taking a little break after ordering from the liquor store.” Kasai sighed. “So now you know.”

“O-Oh, I won’t tell…”

Kasai laughed. “Just kidding.”

Tsuna felt like he missed something, but it couldn’t be that important.

“Oh! Is that the rumored boyfriend? I see… That hard work in the kitchen paid off, huh?”

Yukiko blushed hard. “I-It’s not like that!!”

“Wow, your face is burning red. Well, I’ll let you two be alone!” Kasai took off, giggling.

“Sh-Sheesh… I-I’m sorry about that. Oh, that was one of our waitresses. They all have the wrong idea. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he reassured her, “it happens. They’re just teasing because they’re fond of you and don’t intend any harm.”

“…Thank goodness,” she said, though she went from a red face to a cold sweat.

Tsuna could only assume she was hoping for a different response out of him and prayed that would be the end of it. He really didn’t want to have to drive the point home that he was already with someone and it sure as hell wasn’t a girl. Besides, if she really did follow through and leave town, was she expecting whoever she was with to run off with her?

“Kasai-san is teaching me how to cook, along with the other waitresses and chefs,” she eventually said. “I said I’d learn on my own, but I keep messing up. I burnt myself a couple of times, too. ‘Please let us teach you,’ they said.” Yukiko giggled for some reason.

“It’s usually the other way around, you know? They use up their break time for my lessons, they’re so nice to me… When I was halfway successful one time, everyone gathered around and taste-tested it, saying how good it was… I didn’t know what to say. I was just happy. Plus, I have my friends at school. All things considered, I’m pretty lucky. I want to do my best… For everyone’s sake…”

Tsuna nearly sighed when a rank message flashed by. He abso-fucking-lutely needed a holiday in the next life. This therapist gig was just killing him.

“But I’m trying to leave… Betraying those who’ve been kind to me… I can’t help that I suppose,” she said, then stood up. “Well, I’ve taken up enough time here. Thank you, for listening.”

####  18 July 2011, Monday

As it was Ocean Day, they had it free. Well, they had most days free thanks to clones, but a genuine holiday meant they could be seen in town during school hours and not get hauled off by a truant officer or something. There was no equivalent to Hibari, at least.

But, as was the way of things in Inaba for a guy with Social Links, he was waylaid by Chie, who wanted to go train because studying for the exams which started the next day was melting her brain. So he parted from his family and wandered off to the river with her.

They “trained” for some time (which consisted of Chie doing all sorts of athletic things like kicking, kicking, and more kicking, while Tsuna stayed just out of sight and did fuck all) until Chie wound down with, “Whew. Let’s call it a day.”

She was just turning toward him when a teenage male sauntered over and said, “Huh? Hey, Chie-san. Whatcha doing?”

“T-Takeshi-kun…!? W-Well, training! I’m working out!”

Did she have a crush on the guy or what?

“Huh? When are you gonna graduate to being king of the hill?”

Chie looked confused, which reflected what Tsuna was feeling at the moment. “K-King of the hill…?”

“You don’t remember, huh? In kindergarten it was the Runt Gang, in elementary school you were an Ally of Justice… Middle school, it was the Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution, wasn’t it? So… What is it now? You a Protector of Earth’s Peace?”

“W-Well…”

“That’s quite a resumé, Chie-chan,” he said in amusement.

“I’m Kouno Takeshi,” the guy said to him. “I was with Chie-chan up until middle school. …I’m not gonna get in you guys’ way.”

Tsuna blinked as Chie said, “Hey, what are you—?”

“Oh,” Takeshi interrupted, “how’s Yukiko-san doing? Does she have a boyfriend yet…?”

“…She’s fine, and I don’t think so.”

“I see. Cool, cool. She still good-looking?” Takeshi asked with blatant insensitivity. “Maybe I should try for her again…”

Chie just stared.

“I’ll see you later. Say hi to Yukiko-san for me.”

Chie watched him go, sadness etched on her face.

‘So lets see here. Yukiko has a crush on me, Chie has a crush on this dude, but he has a crush on Yukiko.” He decided to be goofy and ridiculous and did an impression of a somewhat different Takeshi for Chie’s benefit, to get her to laugh if nothing else.

Chie started laughing hysterically and wheezing. “What, was that supposed to sound like him!? I-I’m sorry. He really is rude, huh? Seriously… He was always staring at Yukiko. H-Hey, don’t get me wrong. He’s nothing but an old classmate to me! We’re just friends, y’know…? We used to get that a lot, though.”

Tsuna nodded as a rank message flashed by, letting her lie stand unchallenged. Only time would work that out.

“…But that’s all in the past!” she said. “Let’s head home.”

####  23 July 2011, Saturday

The week had passed by in another haze of exams and they were subjected to the usual post-exam nonsense, though thankfully they were able to escape before too long.

“It’s allll over!” Yosuke said, then yawned. “I’m so sleepy…”

“Yuck,” Chie exclaimed. “Don’t yawn in my face like that! Hey, for the third question on the English test, which phrase did you choose?”

“Um… I went with ‘used to’,” Yukiko said.

“Wrong again,” Chie said dejectedly.

“So much for Chie-chan going abroad,” Yosuke said cheerfully. “Heck, why leave Inaba? You have so much right here!”

“Oooooh, you’re so annoying!” Chie said as they finished packing up and headed out.

On their way to the Rokudo house they ran across Adachi, who was saying, “For crying out loud… It’s nice to have a suspect, but where the hell is he? We’re at the end of our rope here.” Then he noticed Tsuna and the others and got a deeply embarrassed expression.

“Y-You guys… Y-You didn’t hear that, did you?” He laughed nervously. “This case is as good as solved! Don’t worry, kids. It’s only a matter of time before we bring in the suspect. I mean, the guy’s kidnapping people at random and slaughtering them! We won’t rest until we bring him to justice! …I-I gotta get going.” Adachi scurried off quickly.

They didn’t say a word until they got back to the house, at which point he said, “Did they misplace their suspect or something?”

Daemon gave him a weird look. “Misplace the suspect? Not that we’d noticed. We’ll have to keep a closer eye on things. Last I knew he’d been moved to the psych ward at the hospital.”

“Tonight, we have a special report. The topic is the bizarre serial murder case in Inaba, where the victims’ bodies are discovered hanging upside down. Police have yet to announce any progress in the investigation since the discovery of a third victim. Our special report tonight is a summary of the events and the facts in the case thus far…”

“They still haven’t caught him?” Nanako asked.

“I’ll protect you.”

Nanako looked back at him. “Okay. You promise, right?”

He nodded. After all, the odds of his cousin ever being on—‘Not even going to finish that thought. I may have jinxed things.’

####  24 July 2011, Sunday

“Dude, you wanna come back and hang out once you’re done?” Yosuke asked, having noticed them doing the weekly shopping. He looked stressed and ready for a break.

“Sure,” he said. “It’ll be a half hour…? That okay?”

Yosuke nodded and went back to work, so Tsuna, Sin, and Nanako headed out. He was back a half hour later and, when Yosuke saw him, went with him to the food court.

“So whatcha gonna eat today?”

“I suppose I could—”

“Hey, Hanamura-kun!!”

It was those two girls again.

Yosuke heaved a quiet sigh. “What is it today?”

“How come Kazumi-chan can take the day off and we can’t?” Snooty demanded to know.

“…Huh?”

“We told you before! We can’t work weekends! So when we refused, they said they were going to fire us! I don’t get this!”

Yosuke had a look that bespoke deeply strained patience. “Hey, I talked to the manager… Senpai, have you been taking absences without leave lately?”

“I-I just forgot to come,” Gaudy said. “Besides, that’s not the point! What’re you going to do about this!? I have a date that day!”

“How come you’re favoring Kazumi-chan, huh!?” Snooty said. “You were like that with Saki-chan, too!”

“…Huh?”

“Don’t try to hide it!” Gaudy said. “We all know! You liked Saki-chan and treated her special!”

Yosuke heaved another quiet sigh. “…I don’t think Saki-senpai had anything to do with this subject.”

“Yeah, it does!” Gaudy said. “You told the other workers to take it easy on Saki-chan, too, didn’t you? You think you can do anything just because you’re the manager’s son!?”

“So it’s Kazumi-chan now that Saki-chan’s dead!? Don’t even bother, she has a boyfriend. Didn’t you get it!? Saki-chan didn’t like you! We heard so from her! She may have acted that way, but…”

Tsuna strangled the urge to off the two selfish brats as defects when they began a litany of badmouthing the dead girl. Instead he muttered, “I feel bad for Saki-senpai, having had to deal with unreliable, selfish, bitchy gossips like these two.”

“Tsuna-kun,” Yosuke practically whispered.

“Who are _you_?” Snooty demanded. “Are you stupid!?”

Yosuke straightened up and scowled. “Don’t talk like that to Tsuna-kun! Just shut up, will you!? You’re really getting on my nerves! What do you even know about Saki-senpai!? She didn’t do things half-assed like you two! She looked lazy, but she worked hard! She talked bad, but she was good inside! So she hated me? I knew that! She’s not here anymore! I’m left behind! Just… Just leave me alone.”

“Wh-What the heck…?” Gaudy said, having taken a step back during the rant.

“…Let’s go.”

The two girls minced off, casting glances back over their shoulders.

Yosuke exhaled slowly. “…I just … blurted out a bunch of crap, huh?”

“Understandably so,” he said. “You were upset.”

“N-No, I was just…” Yosuke produced a strained smile. “Damn. Another pathetic display from Yosuke, huh? …Thanks, though. Hearing you say that… It made me happy.” The smiled turned from strained to sheepish.

Yosuke sighed as a rank message flashed by. “I don’t want to… I really don’t want to, but I’ll go talk with Dad… At this rate, those two are gonna quit. I should tell him and apologize. I don’t know… What do I want to do? I don’t get it … even though it’s my own future. …Sorry, but I’ll see you later.”

There were times, he thought as he waved Yosuke away, that he desperately wished Yosuke would just stiffen his spine and stop taking shit from those two. He also wished Yosuke’s father would give the poor kid clear-cut instructions on how to handle situations like these. You know, “Sorry, I’m not HR and I’m not authorized to make scheduling changes. You’ll need to speak to them. Conversation over.”

####  25 July 2011, Monday

“You all scored at the top,” a clone informed them before they dissipated.

“Yay,” he said dryly. “I know! My uncle secretly thinks this is Death Note and I’m Kira. Not sure which of you is Amane, though. Sin, I suppose.”

“Not a girl!” Sin protested. “Which reminds me… Wait, no, not gonna say it. I might jinx things.”

He shot a confused look at his lover, then nodded. He knew exactly what he was referring to, and he didn’t want to jinx it, either. “Yeah, not going there. Sadly, I need to get back to the Dojima house. I’ll see you all tomorrow, darlings.”

When he got home Nanako beamed at him. “Dad said you got the top score on your tests. That’s incredible! Um… I made this,” she said, handing over what looked like an armband made of paper. “H-Here you go,” she said, giggling.

“Nanako-chan, thanks,” he said sincerely. Dojima was clearly checking up on his school efforts, which was downright creepy, but maybe his cousin had asked him to check? A quick look at the armband showed it would only work for him, and it would give him +5 to all stats. If they hadn’t done the Reaper hunts it would have been very useful.

“Anything you want to do before dinner? A game? Dolls?”

Dojima showed up after dinner, when Nanako was watching TV and Tsuna was at the kitchen table, doing a crossword puzzle there to keep an eye on his cousin. His uncle got himself a cup of coffee and took a seat. “You know, I’m a little surprised you haven’t invited any of your friends over.”

Tsuna slowly looked up in surprise. “…I didn’t think that would be a good idea.”

“What? Why?”

Was his uncle truly that blindered? “…You told me straight up you didn’t trust them because they’d lived in Tokyo.” It didn’t help that Mukuro gave off the air of an axe-crazy psycho and Hayato a delinquent.

“Oh, yeah,” Dojima muttered. 

“I figured the last thing I should do is invite any of them in, that you would be upset or angry about it. So no, I haven’t invited them beyond the front door.”

“What about other kids in town? I know you’ve hung out with some of your classmates. The Amagi girl, Satonaka, Hanamura?”

Tsuna set his pencil down and tried not to frown. “If I don’t feel comfortable inviting my true friends over, why would I feel any inclination to invite casual ones? It just doesn’t work that way. I see them in town or at their house.” He shrugged. “No big deal.”

“I see… Well, excellent job on your exams,” Dojima said with a fake smile. “Here’s a little something from me.” He handed over ¥40,000 as he got up and went to sit on the sofa.

‘Why am I being paid to do well in school?’ he wondered, stashing the money and returning to his puzzle. ‘Eh, I can always spend it on supplies for Nanako.’


	12. λ21: 12: 26 July - 08 September 2011

## λ21  
12: 26 July - 08 September 2011

####  26 July 2011, Tuesday

It rained all day, which was depressing. Tsuna didn’t mind rain in the least, especially during the summer. It brought some relief from the heat and humidity. But in a whacky place like Inaba…

At midnight he turned to the TV. A moment later it flicked on; the image was sharp and bright and featured Fish-Eyes. Tsuna was slightly weirded out to see that the location the kid was at resembled a later-gen 8-bit environment. It looked like an arena? Maybe?

“…You all think you can see me?” Fish-Eyes said. “You all think you know everything about me?”

Off to the side his laptop appeared to “wake up” and the “chat application” came up, showing a window with his family. Tsuna understood why the subterfuge when he noticed Teddie lurking in the background.

“Then try and catch me,” Fish-Eyes said, making Tsuna despair for the kid’s murder of their language.

“Sensei! Sensei!” Teddie said excitedly, rushing over to the “screen” on the other side.

Tsuna tossed up a quick sound barrier in the hopes that his cousin and uncle were not disturbed.

“I finally got to see the Midnight Channel with my own eyes! Now I know exactly what’s happening. That guy’s suppressed emotions are resonating with the other side, which are picked up by the TVs over here. It’s clear now that it’s not being filmed by anyone. Mystery solved!” Teddie looked so proud of himself it was kind of adorable.

“But that kid… He must already be inside the other world! What’re we gonna do!?”

“We’ll be going in,” he said firmly.

“Gotcha! I knew I could count on you, sensei!” Teddie said as a rank message flashed by. “…I think my heart skipped a beat.”

“Teddie,” he said, capturing the blond’s attention again. “Talk with the others, okay? They know what we’ve uncovered about that kid. If you’re up for it, you can get a head-start on sniffing him out so that when we come in we can head straight to him, okay? Will you do that?”

Teddie struck a pose. “I’m on it, sensei! This bear is on the hunt!”

Teddie was replaced by Daemon, who rolled his eyes. “Hopefully what we’ve gathered will be enough. I really don’t want to have to rifle through the minds of half the town. I don’t even get why that kid spent so much time in Inaba. He went to school in the next town over, for fuck’s sake.”

“Maybe they all thought he was too damn creepy over there, so he went fishing here, so to speak.”

“Well, much as I’d like to talk now, it is late. We can pick up in the morning, darling.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there straight after breakfast,” he said as a rank message flashed by for the Fool Arcana.

####  27 July 2011, Wednesday

They arrived at a castle of sorts rather than an arena. The huge wooden door had been replaced with words—

» Game Start  
Continue

—and below those was an animated button-style portal.

“So, right. Looks like we’re going old school, guys. I’m getting serious Minecraft vibes.”

Inside more words appeared—

» Begin a New Quest  
End Your Quest

—and the cursor kept bouncing between the two for a bit before settling on the first. Next up was a prompt to Please enter your name: which was slowly filled in with Mitsuo. Only then were they allowed to proceed.

“Ugh, even the music is 8-bit,” he complained. “I thought we left that shit behind ages ago.”

The floors were numbered differently than usual. Instead of 1F they were on “Void Quest Chapter 1”. At any rate, there was nothing of interest on that floor and they sliced through Shadows like a hot knife through butter thanks to their Reaper gear.

On Void Quest Chapter 2 they saw:

* Waahahahahahaha! How dare you stand against me for being a rotten orange! I’ll make a worthless human like you taste endless pain! Take this!

Critical hit!

Punishing hit!

Mitsuo has been knocked down…

“So, that happened,” Sin said dryly.

They quickly cleared the floor and headed up to Void Quest Chapter 3, which had:

A female announcer draws near!

Command?  
» Fight  
Run

Mitsuo attacks!

Thou hast done well in defeating the female announcer.

Mitsuo hath been promoted to the next level.

Thy excitement increases by 4.

Thy emptiness increases by 1.

“This is all very … meta,” Chikusa commented. “And misleading, I expect.”

Tsuna nodded. “Very misleading, I think. But let’s keep going.”

Green light stained everything on that floor, and it was … blurry. Up ahead was a four-way split, but Teddie piped up a moment after it came into view.

“…Hm? Weird, there’s a dead-end up ahead. I thought this was the right way.”

Once they got a little closer he could see that the “north” end was blocked off, as were the “west” and “east”. Tsuna chose west on a lark and examined the little fountain there. A second later they were in a new location.

“Huh!?” Teddie said. “What happened? We ended up somewhere else. Careful, senpai!”

“Warp portals,” Daemon said.

Tsuna checked his map and saw that they had been warped to the left, into a new corridor. They headed north and came to another of those four-way splits with fountains. “Right,” he said. “Hopefully it’s only this floor.”

There was a room in one spot, in the northeastern “corner” of the map, which had a golden chest, a Shadow, and a fountain on each wall, but none of them felt quite right to him, so after they took care of the Shadow and the chest, they exited and kept on to the next dead-end fountain. The resulting corridor had only a single fountain at the end, which they took.

“Huh!? We’re back at the beginning?” Teddie said.

“This is annoying,” Daemon commented, eyeing Tsuna.

He shrugged. “I’m just listening to the usual.” They retraced part of their steps, finding out along the way that some of the fountains were non-functional, and ended up exploring some of the areas they had not been in before, ending up in the northwestern “corner” of the map, which had a similar room with stairs leading upward.

Void Quest Chapter 4 had:

* You seemed to have slept well last night. You slept so well that not even the noisy siren from the police cars woke you. I think something really bad happened… Can you go buy some coffee from the café at the arcade? Thanks. Did you hear a girl was killed? It’s becoming a dangerous world out there… I don’t even feel safe walking around town… Don’t let your guard down, and make sure you're not out late, okay?

“Did we just get a freakin’ reference to that one game?” Hayato asked.

Void Quest Chapter 5 had:

A corpse discoverer draws near!

Command?  
» Fight  
Run

Mitsuo attacks!

Thou hast done well in defeating the corpse discoverer.

Mitsuo hath been promoted to the next level.

Thy sadness increases by 5.

Thy emptiness increases by 8.

Void Quest Chapter 6 had:

Hollow voice: No… No… No… N… No… N… o… Noooo… Nnnooo… Nooo… Noo… Noooo… N…ooooooooo oooooooooooo ooooooooooooo aaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Tsuna looked at the others.

“Dude just flipped a table in his head,” Ken said.

Void Quest Chapter 7 had:

* Did you sleep well? I heard that a girl was killed last night. The noise of the arcade was bad, but can you buy some coffee from the café in the police cars? Thanks, I can’t even safely walk around… I can safely withdraw cash now. Have you heard? Good morning. Don’t be out dangerously late, okay? Relax and don’t let your guard down.

The lighting on that floor was blue. It made him wonder if another set of floors higher up would be red. When they hit the four-way intersection he heard a clunk, which was odd. He realized after checking the map that they were being subjected to a direction change. Not all of the intersections did the same, though.

There was one room, however, that had a mid-boss, called Killing Hand. When defeated it dropped something called a Shadow Orb.

Void Quest Chapter 8 had:

* Waahahahahahaha! How dare you stand against me for being a rotten orange!

Morooka draws near!

Command?  
» Kill  
Run

Mitsuo attacks!

Thou hast done well in defeating Morooka.

Mitsuo hath been promoted to the next level.

Thy Attention increases by 16.

Thy Fame increases by 17.

Thy Coolness increases by 3.

“There is no way this snotbag had anything to do with the earlier ones,” Xeul said. “Notice the change in the command choices? It went from fight to kill.”

“And how the attributes changed,” Mukuro pointed out.

Void Quest Chapter 9 had:

* Ah, the hero Mitsuo… Thou hast done well! You’re… Yyyyooouuuuuu’’’rrreeeee… Yyyyyyyoouuuuu’’’rrrrrr eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee rrrrrr eeeeeeeee rrrrrr eeeere reeerr eeeeeeee rrrr yorujkgamsklee ruiogmamnsekr ljffojlgakill fyoreklgaka illfkek killkillkillkillkillkillkillki

“This kid needs some serious mental help,” he said.

The next floor was called Void Quest Endgame. It was back to normal lighting, and the only thing they saw on ascending the stairs was a door.

“Hm, I can sense him past this door,” Teddie said.

“Okay, break time,” he said, then sat down. “There’s a boss on the other side, so let’s just rest for a bit first.”

They broke out the bentos, including one for Teddie, since apparently he ate now.

“Think it’s the final boss?” Ken asked.

“With a floor name like this one?” Chikusa said. “I imagine so. But who knows.”

Inside—the door was sealed, but the Shadow Orb they had picked up earlier turned out to be the ‘key’—was Mitsuo. He was standing there staring at his Shadow.

“Everyone gets on my nerves… That’s why I did it! What do you think of that!? Say something, damn it!”

“…”

“Nobody even thought of me after the first two people. That’s why I went for the third one! I killed them!”

“…”

“Wh-What’re you all quiet for…?”

“Because … I feel nothing…”

“What’re you talking about!? Make sense, damn it!”

“I … have nothing… I am nothing… And you … are me…”

“What…? What’s that supposed to mean!? I’m… I’m not nothing…” Mitsuo finally seemed to register that the door had opened—complete with cutesy 8-bit sound effects, and glanced back at them. “Wh-Who are you guys!? How’d you get in here…? Damn it, who the hell are you!? What’re you doing here!?

“So you call yourself a killer, huh?” Tsuna said quietly.

Mitsuo laughed; it was brittle in sound. “Of course I am! I’m the one behind everything! I don’t give a damn what this imposter’s saying! Ha, you hear that!?” he said to his Shadow. “You have nothing to do with me! Get outta my sight!”

“…”

“That goes for the rest of you, too. Why’d you chase me all the way here!? I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you! I can do it, you know… I can do anything!”

“So you don’t accept me…” his Shadow said tonelessly.

Mitsuo clutched at his head. “Ngh… What the—? Aaaargh!”

Tsuna rolled his eyes and moved forward as the idiot was dragged out of the line of fire. “Kid kinda sounds like he’s suffering from severe depression and ought to be seeing a psychologist. Maybe once the police have him in custody again…”

“Even if he did off Morooka, I doubt he’s competent to stand trial,” Sin added.

Shadow Mitsuo morphed into a floating baby thing with a blue-green halo of odd symbols which, after the words Character Setup flashed by, started to cover itself in a shell of 8-bit armor block by block. “I am … a shadow. Come… I’ll end your emptiness. Come…”

“Hell, he’s as good as admitted he’s not the one behind everything with the way he disputed his Shadow’s words,” Mukuro said.

“That thing also did not say the words we normally hear,” he pointed out.

“Oh, look, it gets two turns per round,” Chikusa said dryly. “Fat lot of good that’ll do it.”

Indeed, they had the thing defeated in no time flat.

Mitsuo groaned, then laughed again. “All the cases… All on me… That’s right, I did it! And not just that bastard Morooka… That stupid announcer and that Konishi bitch, too! I killed all of them! It was all me!”

Mitsuo went down (thanks to one of his Mists) while his Shadow just … vanished … into a fog of black and red for some reason.

“I’ve had about enough weirdness for one day,” he said. “Let’s get Fish-Eyes here back and decide how to handle this.”

One Traesto later and they were at the entrance to the castle, and Teddie skittered off to lead the way back to the TV World entrance. They exited through the TV stack, back into the Rokudo house.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “How the hell did they lose him? I can’t believe, based on the evidence, that this idiot has the power to enter on his own. He was in police custody, wasn’t he!?”

“Either way, we’re going to mess with his memories. We don’t dare go in the normal way, not when he’s so clearly not right in the head, so we’ll use False Memory Charms. Of course, we don’t dare check to see his memory of when he went in, for the same reason. We could acquire some veritaserum from λ15, but…”

“It still tells us something,” he said. “There is someone out there who can just walk right up to a place and do this. You know what I think? I think Fish-Eyes was tossed in to cover something up, so that when he hopefully died, everyone would think he really was the killer of all three.”

There was something right there, right in front of his face, with flashing neon colours just begging for him to voice it, and it was just beyond his reach. “Fucking fog,” he muttered. “Whatever entity it is behind this really doesn’t like to play fair. And I realize now that his face was never once shown on TV, maybe because he’s underage.”

“That further supports your theory,” Sin said, squeezing his hand. “Let’s drop Fish-Eyes off in an alley, wearing a hospital gown, unconscious, and then nudge a police officer so that he’s found.”

“Right.” He sighed. “Since we’re on summer break, maybe I can max out a few Social Links. I can use the morning and after lunch. And get in some more of those damn requests from Margaret. Aside from that, I think we should skip town every couple of days to go do something completely unrelated to Inaba.”

“On a side note,” Mukuro said from his spot next to Mitsuo, “we found our wayward Sun. He’s off on a rather complicated hit.”

Tsuna sighed again, that time in relief.

####  12 August 2011, Friday

It had rained the night before and it was raining again, so he would have to check the Midnight Channel, just in case. During the intervening days he had managed to complete his goal of maxing various Social Links, those for Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko, as well as a handful of ranks for Margaret. Oh, and one with Teddie.

Thankfully, Yukiko had finally gotten the message that he wasn’t a candidate for her boyfriend, and she also came to conclusion that she wanted to stay in Inaba and eventually take over the inn. Even Chie had somehow managed to develop a mild crush on him, but that was quickly enough taken care of.

When midnight rolled around he checked the TV. There was nothing but static.

####  13 August 2011, Saturday

As he was about to get dinner started the phone rang. Nanako raced over to pick it up and answer. After a few moments she said, “Okay. I’ll tell him.” Once she hung up she turned to him and said, “Dad’s bringing home sushi.”

He nodded after a moment. “I wonder what the occasion is. Well, all right. We’re having sushi, then.”

Shortly thereafter Dojima arrived with Adachi in tow, bearing dinner. Tsuna didn’t see any drinks in all that, so he grabbed two cans of beer, a juice box, and a soft drink, then joined them.

“Wow, what a great spread!” Adachi enthused. “I’ve never seen so many pieces of fatty tuna!”

“If you’re gonna have a celebration,” Dojima said, cracking open his can of beer, “you can’t do it halfway.”

“Celebration?” Nanako asked.

“Yeah, ah—it’s about this,” Dojima said, nodding at the TV. “Watch.”

“ ‘I didn’t care who it was.’ ‘I was pissed off.’ ‘I wanted to be famous.’ The suspect was often heard saying these things. The young suspect has confessed to being the culprit behind the recent cases, but he’s shown no remorse so far. Because of several inconsistencies in the boy’s deposition, some have called for a mental examination to be carried out.”

‘I thought they already were.’

“Until then,” the announcer continued, “the police will be continuing their investigation to shed light on all the prior incidents.”

“It was actually really tough to make a case out of this,” Adachi informed them. “All we had was the suspect’s confession and some circumstantial evidence. But the lab found the perp’s prints on the victim’s clothes, so we made it stick after all.”

‘Just the one, or all three?’ he wondered. ‘I’ll have to see what my Mists have to say about that.’

“Man, isn’t crime scene investigation something? Who would’ve thought you could get viable prints from cloth?”

Dojima shook his head and looked at Nanako. “There’s no more scary stuff to worry about. You’re safe now.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Man, that guy was twisted. A high schooler committing multiple murders and leaving the bodies like that… He was over the edge! Good thing we caught him! Now I can stop seeing suspects in every shadow! If the killer was on the loose…”

“Enough, Adachi! If you keep running your mouth, the sushi’s gonna dry up!”

“Oh, you’re right. Sorry!”

“C’mon, everyone, eat up!”

Adachi smiled. “Well, since you asked…” He paused and looked at Nanako. “What is it? You don’t like sushi, Nanako-chan?”

“There’s wasabi on it…”

Dojima looked chagrined. “Ah, that’s right. I forgot to tell them to hold the wasabi. Here, I’ll take it off for you. Which one do you want?”

Nanako carefully examined the platter. “Halibut!”

“Excellent taste, Nanako-chan,” Adachi said. “As for me, I’ll go for the sea urchin…”

“Hey! There’s only one of those!” his uncle protested.

“Too late! First come, first serve.”

As he ate he thought, ‘Even Adachi doesn’t sound convinced they have the right person. And why would he be? Circumstantial evidence, unproven testimony, and a suspect who’s clearly lost it…’

####  14 August 2011, Sunday

Yosuke flagged him down again while they were at Junes. “It’s not for today. It’s this week though, Monday through Friday. There’s this thing going on, some hero show, and we could desperately use some extra hands. I’ll pay you more than the usual crew, since this is last minute. Can you…?”

“How many extra?” Sin asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah, if the four of you want to help, that’d be amazing!”

Tsuna shrugged. “What time do we need to be there?”

“Um, eight, yeah,” Yosuke said, before having to dash off.

“Anyway, let’s continue shopping,” he said. “Hopefully it won’t be a burden when I leave each day in time to make dinner.”

Dojima showed up after dinner and went straight to the kitchen table, to his stack of paperwork, and plopped a file folder down on top. He shuffled through it several times then started mumbling. “It was here before… Those damn kids. Don’t they teach ’em how to file data anymore?” His uncle seemed to notice him standing there right in plain sight dealing with the dishes. 

“Oh… Sorry, I wasn’t talking about you. I was trying to find an old newspaper article. It was falling apart, so I made a copy, but… The copy seems to have gone missing. …There’s a certain case where we don’t have a suspect yet… And since the trail’s going cold, it’s about to be buried under newer cases. But I can’t give up on this one. Ever.”

Nanako wandered down the stairs looking ill. “Dad…?”

“Hm?” Dojima said, back to rifling through the folder. “What’s wrong?”

“My stomach hurts…”

“Was it something you ate!?” Dojima asked, sparing a glance at Tsuna before focusing on his daughter.

“It feels like a sharp pain below my stomach.”

“What!? I’ll call the doc—n-no, wait. This happened before. Is it the same feeling?”

“I don’t know…”

Dojima huffed. “Okay, the medicine we used before is—” He broke off when his phone rang. “Damn it! Who’s calling at this time of the night?” he said as he answered. “Dojima here! …Adachi? I’m hanging up,” he said scornfully. “…A sealed letter? For me? Is it from Ichihara-san!? …When did it come!? …You forgot!?” At that point his uncle was up and pacing back and forth. “Adachi! I’m on my way!”

The phone was shoved into a pocket and Dojima grabbed his jacket. “Gotta go. The medicine should be in the first aid kit. She’s in your hands,” he said, then disappeared out the front door.

Tsuna frowned, then gently steered his cousin off to the bathroom so he could find and administer said medicine. Then he escorted her upstairs and into bed.

Several hours later, as he was cleaning up his glass from his most recent gaming session and preparing to head to bed that his uncle returned, and he looked ill-tempered. “Tsuna-kun… You’re still up? It’s late. Go to sleep.”

He opened his mouth to reply and was immediately cut off with, “Just shut up…”

Tsuna turned away to finish his task. The glass went into the strainer and he turned back as his uncle said, “Sorry. How’s Nanako?”

“Asleep,” he said tersely.

“Sleeping, good. You’ve been a great help here,” Dojima said as an unwelcome rank message flashed by. “It’s pretty late. Go hit the hay. ’Night, Tsuna-kun.”

“Good night, Dojima-san,” he said flatly as he ascended the stairs.

####  19 August 2011, Friday

He spent the week behind the counter at the Junes food court, cooking for the masses. That his cooking was as good as it was just ramped up demand for it, so he was never given a moment’s rest, despite how simplistic most of it was.

The heat was horrible and being at a grill did not help in the least, but by the time he was ready to leave Yosuke rolled over and said, “Hey, tomorrow’s the Summer Festival. Maybe I’ll see you guys at the Tatsuhime Shrine? Oh, and here’s your pay for the week.” He handed over ¥40,000, which seemed rather low considering, but Tsuna chose not to quibble.

####  20 August 2011, Saturday

Tsuna wore one of his new yukata in the usual purple, with an obi of indigo. They all dressed for the occasion—the “students”, anyway. It was nice enough, being there, eating stall food and playing silly games. It was a nice break after the week at Junes.

####  22 August 2011, Monday

He ran into Kanji at the river, having intended to do some fishing with Sin, but it appeared that Kanji was searching for something. Sin melted back into hiding in response.

“I can’t get this place outta my head,” Kanji said once he noticed Tsuna. “I keep wonderin’ if that rabbit the kid tossed out mighta washed ashore around here… If he finds it now, he’ll just feel bad. …Not that I’m wading in today or anything.”

“Hey, mister!” The kid had shown up again. “There you are! Sana-chan was really happy!! I’ve been looking for you ever since!”

“Look, kid, quit callin’ me—ah, forget it.”

“Can you make some more, mister? My mom really wants one! Sana-chan’s mom does, too! They said they’ll pay you!”

Kanji took a step back in surprise. “Pay me!? I don’t need that… I-It ain’t like I’m a pro at this.”

“My mom wants a cat, and Sana-chan’s mom wants a dog. And my teacher wants a pink alligator,” the kid informed him.

“A pink alligator?” Kanji said disbelievingly. “…Oh, like the one in that storybook, right? F-Fine, then… I’ll get around to it sometime.”

The kid cheered, then said, “Thank you! Remember, you promised!” before running off again.

“Strange situation I got myself into, ain’t it?” Kanji turned a somewhat shocked look his way.

“I’d say it’s good for you.”

“Good…? I don’t really know,” Kanji said, tilting his head. “When I was in elementary school, I fixed a classmate’s bag this one time. Thinking back … I guess I liked her. I only did it to make her happy, but … the next day, all the girls were makin’ fun of us. …She cried. I didn’t understand why, but y’know… I thought I’d done something wrong. So I never thought I’d be thanked for doing this stuff. It feels good. Hearin’ ‘thank you’… I like it!” Kanji laughed a bit sheepishly.

“It’s always good to be appreciated,” he said as a rank message flashed by.

“Oh… Well, I gotta jet. I have to go to Okina Station. To the, uh, f-fabric shop. I’m outta material, so… L-Later!” Kanji booked it out of the vicinity.

Sin stepped back into view. “He’s happy, he’s embarrassed, and he’s not quite sure what to make of it all. Shall we, tesoro? There are fish to catch for dinner.”

“We shall.”

####  23 August 2011, Tuesday

“Um, onii-san?”

“What is it, Nanako-chan?”

“I have this homework I’m supposed to do… But the teacher said doing it with my family is supposed to, um, tighten family bonds?”

Tsuna blinked at such a weird assignment. Nevertheless he said, “I’ll help you out.”

“There’s a lot, though,” she warned him, making him wonder why she hadn’t asked earlier.

“It’s fine. What’s the first assignment?”

“Really!? Thank you, onii-san! Um, then I’ll start by working on spelling practice.”

He spent the evening double-checking her work, wondering how this counted as tightening family bonds, then ushered her up to bed.

####  24 August 2011, Wednesday

He spent some time with Nanako that evening helping with her homework. The assignment was for her to write down three proverbs … for some reason.

####  25 August 2011, Thursday

Nanako’s next assignment was to write an essay about something she remembered. When she came up blank he suggested the first time he cooked dinner, and how she helped.

####  26 August 2011, Friday

His intuition nudged him toward the river, so off he went to see what was up. Kanji again? It was. He was there with that kid again, and placed a bunch of different knit dolls on the table there. Each one had different clothing and accessories.

“I can have these!?”

“Y-Yeah. If you don’t need ’em, I guess you could just—”

“Thank you!” Doll Boy practically screamed. “Oh, yeah! Mom said… You should at least be paid for the materials, so he gave me some money.”

“I-I said I don’t need it! I look like I’m in this for the money to you!?” Kanji protested.

“Mister, you’re from Tatsumi Textiles, right?”

“Huh? Onii-san?”

Tsuna turned to see his cousin wandering their way.

“Ooh, dolls! These are so cute!!” she squealed. “What are these!?”

“Uh, well…”

“This man made them!” Doll Boy informed Nanako.

Nanako immediately beamed at Kanji. “That’s amazing! You’re really good!”

Kanji looked nonplussed. “She looked straight at me when he said ‘this man’. H-Hey, don’t go around telling everyone, okay? It’s kinda embarrassing…”

“Why? I think it’s cool you can make things like this. I want to learn how to make them, too. Onii-san doesn’t know how to do this—do you?”

Tsuna shook his head. “Sorry, Nanako-chan. I don’t know how to knit.”

“Oh,” Kanji said. “Well, maybe next time? That okay with you, ‘onii-san’?”

Tsuna chuckled. “Yeah, sure. So long as we’re supervising, it’s fine.

“For… For reals…? Er, I-I ain’t that good at teaching,” Kanji said, looking a bit panicked.

“Oh, right,” Nanako said. “I was on my way to Emi-chan’s house! Teach me next time! Bye!” Nanako waved and dashed off.

“I’m going to show these to Mom! Thanks, mister!” Doll Boy dashed off as well.

“I think I kinda understand now. A little, anyway. About what ‘strength’ really means. I used to think it was doing what needed to be done, like a man… So I thought for me, it was keeping those biker punks from disturbing Ma. And I mean, that’s important, too, but… There’s something else I gotta confront, too, ain’t there?”

“Your past,” he suggested.

“My past… Yeah. I still ain’t snapped out of it. The stuff that’s happened, that girl I made cry a long time ago… I haven’t gotten past any of it… It ain’t that easy to become strong, is it.” Kanji paused to stare into the distance. A rank message flashed by as he continued, “I’m takin’ off. Mom saw the stuff I made and she’s been hassling me about selling ’em at the shop. The hell’s a textile shop gonna do with stuff that’s already been knit?”

Kanji stomped off, pink-faced with embarrassment. But also happiness, he thought.

“For today’s homework I have to write a book report,” Nanako said. “I already finished the book, so I just need to write about it. A king goes deep into the forest and…”

A short time later she was more or less done. “He was all alone… But he wasn’t angry or sad… The king said he was happy. But I feel sad for him. Um, onii-san? Do you feel happy when you’re alone?”

“It depends. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It just depends.”

“I see. Maybe I should write about you, too…”

####  27 August 2011, Saturday

“I’m doing my art homework today,” Nanako informed him. “I have to make something out of stuff I find in the house. A milk carton, a paper towel tube… Knitting wool, origami paper… What else do we have?”

He eyed what she had, slowly putting an idea together in his head.

“I don’t know what to do,” Nanako said huffily.

“I have an idea,” he said. “Hopefully it will work. We’ll need some craft glue, though, and scissors.”

The carton was taken apart at the seams and laid flat, then the excess trimmed off. “This can be our background,” he said, then used a pencil to sketch a few things, like hills and the odd tree. “What do you think of using the wool to make green hills and white clouds. Well, maybe we should glue on some of that blue origami paper first for the sky, and some green for the land.”

Nanako beamed. “Yeah!”

Tsuna carefully cut the paper for the hills so that when it was glued down it would overlap the sky paper, which he had cut cloud-shapes out of to show the white of the milk carton interior. Of course, that covered up his little sketch, but whatever. He had the idea in his head. “Now, measure the wool so you know where to cut each piece, then use it to outline each hill and tack it down with glue. While you do that I’ll make some birds, okay?”

“Okay!”

He set to folding paper while she measured and cut and glued. “Now that you have an outline, you can fill them in the same way, then do the clouds.”

While he was at it, he cut out part of the paper towel tube for a tree trunk, then some circles of green paper for the leafy parts. When Nanako was finished making hills and clouds they let it sit for a little while to dry, then he glued the tree trunk into place. He let Nanako glue the leafy bits in, though. And then he glued a few origami birds to places in the sky.

“What do you think?”

Nanako beamed at him. “Thanks, onii-san! We did great!”

“We did,” he said agreeably. “Now let’s set it someplace safe where it can fully dry.”

####  28 August 2011, Sunday

On their way back from shopping Kanji hailed him. “Hey, senpai! You wanna grab lunch a bit later?”

“Sure. Where do you want to meet?”

“I was thinking Aiya.”

Tsuna nodded. “Yeah, that’s cool. I’ll see you back here at noon, okay?”

“I hear the steak bowl here is great,” Kanji said when he met him outside. “I never tried it before.”

A police officer strolled up before they could head inside. “You’re Tatsumi Kanji, right? I’d like to have a word with you.”

“Huh?” Kanji gave the guy a blank look.

“…Come with me.”

Tsuna’s brow went up. “For what reason?”

“Ah.” The officer turned his attention Tsuna’s way. “You’re the kid that Tatsumi’s been hanging out with lately. I see. So you’re in cahoots…”

Kanji went from blank to confused. “So what if we hang out. What’s it to you?”

“…You know there’s been a group of teenage bullies lurking around here, don’t you? We got a tip saying you’ve been threatening a child at the hill and the flood plain.”

“Threatening…? Child…?” Kanji couldn’t look more confused if he tried. “Oh, that kid.”

The officer huffed. “So you admit it! Not a shred of remorse, either.”

“This is a misunderstanding,” he said.

“Oh? So tell me, what _was_ he doing?”

“Er, that’s…” Kanji couldn’t seem to spit it out.

“You two are going to have to come down with me to the station.”

“Now wait a sec!” Kanji protested. “Senpai’s got nothin’ to do with this!”

Doll Boy came to the rescue by entering the scene with, “Oh, mister. What are you doing?”

“You know these boys, kid? Can you tell me how you know them? I don’t think they’re being straight with me.”

“The hell are you telling that kid!? You call yourself a cop!?”

“Did this boy ask you for anything? For instance, did he claim he lost his money?”

Doll Boy blinked and looked at Kanji. “You lost your money, mister? You can have some of mine!”

“Just as I thought…”

Tsuna started to wonder if this moron had been taking lessons from Adachi.

“Oh! Now I remember. I came today to give you the cookies Mom baked as thanks. I was going to sneak in and leave them at Tatsumi Textiles, but here you are.”

“ ‘Thanks’?” the officer said disbelievingly. “Thanks for what?”

Doll Boy looked at the officer like he was stupid. “He made me a bunch of dolls, like a bunny and a cat. He’s real good!”

“Dolls!? And you’re saying Tatsumi made them? What a load of… There’s no way you’re getting me to believe that.”

‘What a fine example of law enforcement you make,’ he thought, then said, “C’mon, Kanji-kun, you got this.”

Kanji stared at him, then nodded firmly. “Yeah, senpai. I got this.” He turned back to the officer and said, “Awright, listen up, punk… There ain’t any lying about it. I made the kid some dolls. What with the ones for his friends and his mom, it was eight all told! And lemme warn you… They’re so cute, they’ll give you diabetes—the instantly fatal kind! So what, you want me to teach you how to make ’em!? Huh!?”

“What…?”

Kanji pressed the issue. “You ’bout to say that ain’t like me, right? Go ahead and laugh, damn it! Like I care. I’m used to being pointed at. And what’s most important is, I ain’t gonna make this kid or senpai a liar! Hey you! That button’s falling off! I’m gonna sew it back on, y’hear!?”

Tatsumi-san quietly entered the tableau and stared at the officer. “Officer, what are you doing with my Kanji?”

“Oh—well, ma’am, there’ve been several cases of bullying around here, so…”

“Kanji had nothing to do with them,” she said firmly.

“Ma…” Kanji whispered.

“He would never do such a thing. He may be stupid and short-tempered, but he’s a strong and gentle child. Why just the other day, he showed me his dolls, and he told me I can put them up for sale.”

“Y-You old bag! What’re you saying!?”

“I-I apologize,” the officer stuttered. “If you’ll … excuse us…” He swiftly turned and strode away.

“M-Ma… You’d believe me over the police…?”

“You would never do such a thing. A mother knows. I need to prepare dinner now… Don’t go stuffing yourself at Aiya before coming home.” Tatsumi san turned and headed for her shop.

“I…”

“Mister, are you crying?” Doll Boy asked.

“N-N-No! I ain’t crying! This is … snot! I got a cold! You wanna catch it!? Huh!?”

Doll Boy shrugged, handed over the box of cookies, and left as a rank message flashed by.

“Senpai, I-I think I’m gettin’ a sore throat with my cold… Damn it, m-my nose won’t stop runnin’!”

Tsuna led him over to a bench and took a seat, then handed him a handkerchief he acquired from storage via his pocket. “Once it stops we can go ahead and get that beef bowl for lunch, okay?”

Kanji gave him a grateful look, though he didn’t think the kid realized it _was_ a grateful look. Kanji was probably a little too busy dealing with his feelings for his mother’s staunch support of him to think about the part where Tsuna was being so nonjudgmental.

“I have to write a paper about my favorite animal. Hmm… Which one should I choose…? Oh, I know! There’s a picture of it on that shirt that Dad bought… What’s it called? A platypus? I’ll write about platypuses!”

She jumped up to grab a book and came back to sit down and research. “The platypus lays eggs. And they have poisonous claws! …Question! Is it the male or female platypus that has the poison claws?”

“Male,” he said.

“Correct! You’re smart, onii-san!”

####  29 August 2011, Monday

“This is the last thing I have to do for my homework. I just need to write a picture diary. Umm… ‘Onii-san … and Dad…’ Um, let’s see… August 27th… Ah… I don’t remember the weather… Um, onii-san? Did it rain the day that we worked on my art homework?”

“It had stopped raining by then.”

“Hm, okay. Onii-san … help me … a lot … with my homework… ‘He was so nice … I like him so much…’ …No! Don’t look!”

He looked away. Clearly she didn’t realize she was saying what she was writing.

“Okay, I’m done!”

“Well done, Nanako-chan!”

####  30 August 2011, Tuesday

“Yesterday … I went to visit my dad’s grave,” Kanji said as he stared out over the town.

Tsuna had run into him after a intuitive nudge, and Kanji said he wanted to talk someplace quiet, so they ended up at the overlook.

“It’s the first time I went on my own. Well, I had a lot to tell him.”

“How was it?” he asked.

“H-How was it? Well… Uh… I felt like I could finally face him. …A little late, though,” Kanji said with a sad smile. “Dad told me somethin’ right before he died: ‘If you’re a man, you have to become strong.’ I felt he was telling me I wasn’t a real man. Pissed me off.

“So I changed my looks and pushed myself away from other people… Fighting gangs, thinking I was protecting Ma… I thought all that was part of how I was becoming strong. That I was really making up for all the trouble I caused… But that wasn’t it. That ain’t what Dad meant.

“I still don’t really get what bein’ ‘strong’ means, but I’m gonna start by not lying to myself. No more being scared of everyone, hiding my hobbies, staying away from people… Anytime, anyplace, I’m gonna bust right through as my own self! That’s the way to deal with things. As long as there’s someone like that snot-nosed kid to accept me, I ain’t afraid of nothing!

“…Senpai, are you … okay?”

Tsuna _was_ having a slight issue with a bug in his eye. Or possibly dust. “I’m fine. That was really stirring. That was a … strong … statement.”

Kanji smiled. “It’s all thanks to you, senpai!” he said as a rank message flashed by. “Oh, yeah. We’re gonna put those dolls of mine up for sale at the shop. They were a big hit with that kid and his mom… They called me just to say ‘thank you’… Heh, I got a kick outta that. Oh, I need to jet. I gotta go buy more supplies.”

“I’m going to sit here a little longer,” he said and waved Kanji off with a smile.

“I got a phone call from Dad,” Nanako informed him when he got home. “He’s coming home. Let’s get dinner going! Oh, I need to get the pickled radish!”

Tsuna shook his head lightly and go started on dinner.

“My teacher said that families help each other,” Nanako said once she appeared at his side again. “After Mom died, Dad and me have both been lonely… But I have Dad! And I need to do my best so Dad doesn’t feel lonely, either! You’re my family, too, so… Let’s work hard together!”

“Let’s do it,” he said.

“Yeah! Oh, oh yeah… I’m giving this to you!” She handed over a photograph, the same one from earlier, of Nanako and her parents. “Dad made extra copies. You’re family, too, so you should have a family picture. Let’s get a picture of you and me and Dad all together one day!” She giggled, then said, “I love you, onii-san!”

Tsuna’s heart was torn between a feeling of love and heartbreak, but he smiled warmly at her as a rank message flashed by. “I love you, too, Nanako-chan.”

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds … shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Sraosha, the ultimate form of the Justice Arcana.

“We need to hurry, or Dad’ll be home before we’re done!”

Shortly thereafter, and just in time, dinner was ready. Dojima entered the house. “I’m home,” he called out.

“Dad! Welcome home!”

“Y-Yeah.”

“I made dinner with onii-san again! I made sure to remember a nice dish of pickled radish, too!”

“I see… Good work, Nanako.”

“Go wash your hands! Then hurry and sit down!”

“She’s really cheerful,” Dojima commented to him as he washed his hands and Tsuna was portioning out the meal. “I’m sure it’s thanks to you.”

‘I am, too, mostly,’ he thought

“Daddy, onii-san, hurry, hurry!”

“I got it, I got it,” Dojima said indulgently. “Let’s eat, then.”

####  31 August 2011, Wednesday

“Oh, you’re down,” Nanako said.

He had heard the phone ring and was curious, so he had paused his game and wandered down.

“Um, I got a call from Dad. He said someone gave him a watermelon. It’s too big for us to eat, so he said you should call your friends over.”

His brow went up; that was unexpected. “All right.” He got on the phone and called Sin to let him know, assuming they didn’t already know over there.

“So me, Hayato, and Mukuro,” Sin said as soon as he picked up.

“Yeah. Come on over.”

“We’ll be there shortly, tesoro. The normal way, that is.”

Tsuna laughed lightly. “See you soon.”

Nanako looked puzzled over the brevity of the conversation and the utter lack of information in it, but refrained from asking.

About ten minutes later the doorbell went, so he trundled over to open it and let his family in. “Nanako-chan, you already know Sen. This is Mukuro and Hayato,” he said, pointing at them in turn. “Guys, my cousin, Nanako.”

“So you’re the up-and-coming chef who’s been helping Tsuna with dinner each night, huh?” Mukuro asked as he slipped off his shoes.

Nanako blushed, then promptly began chattering about all the dinners they had made together.

Shortly thereafter they heard the sound of the door opening. “I’m home.”

“Welcome home!” Nanako called. “Let’s split the watermelon open!”

“Say what!?” Dojima came into the living area with a chagrined expression. “Uh, well, you see… I already cut it, so I could share some with the neighbors, too.”

Tsuna distracted Nanako from her pout by introducing his friends to his uncle, though they had met before, sort of, and relieved his uncle of his burden so he could cut slices for everyone.

“C’mon, Nanako, don’t pout,” Dojima said. “Everyone came here to hang out, right?” In the face of her unrelenting pout he added, “I’m really sorry. It never occurred to me that you’d want to do that.”

They spent the next couple of hours eating watermelon and playing various games with Nanako while Dojima watched on, but when it got close to dinner time, his family made their excuses and gave their farewell, then headed home.

“You okay to help with dinner?” he asked his cousin. “That was pretty tiring, after all.”

“I can do it!”

“All right. Let’s get to it, then. And then tomorrow…”

“Back to school!”

####  01 September 2011, Thursday

“Blue Hat is now a first year at Yasogami,” one of the clones reported. “She remains unconvinced that the case is settled, so you can expect her to continue to poke around. Also, here’s a flyer about the upcoming school trip.” That was handed over prior to the clones dissipating.

“Tatsumi Port Island,” Daemon said. “You’ll be delighted to know that you’ll be visiting a private high school there, touring factories the second day, and then you’ll return here. Oh, and they’re combining first and second year students.”

“Oh, joy,” he said. “Well, I don’t mind Kanji-kun, but I’d rather not be anywhere near Kujikawa.”

“Nothing for it,” Hayato said. “Just gotta deal with it.”

Tsuna sighed and nodded.

They had spent the morning grinding, as well as taking out two optional bosses, one at the club and one inside the castle. As unlikeable as the 8-bit music and sound effects from the castle were, they were still far less annoying than the club’s offering, which if nothing else would make it less of a bother to grind up to the next crisis.

####  02 September 2011, Friday

He and Sin went for a walk after the clones returned. It was raining, so they took umbrellas. The shopping district had a fair number of people out and about despite that.

“Did that case get solved?” the petrol station attendant asked as they walked by. “The customers all seem to have stopped talking about it, like all of a sudden. Is it all over now…? Be nice if it was.”

“So they say,” he said in passing.

Namatame was over near Souzai Daigaku, dressed in his customary suit trousers and crisp white shirt. “The incidents… Are they really over…? Everything was that boy’s fault? If the police can’t gather the evidence … the victims … Mayumi … won’t be able to rest in peace. I hope … that justice will be served.”

His uncle was at home when he got there, but Tsuna glided upstairs to drop off his things, then returned so he and Nanako could start dinner.

####  03 September 2011, Saturday

For whatever reason, Kanji wanted to talk, so Tsuna swapped out with his clone in one of the school bathrooms and exited the school with the kid. “Can we go to your place? It’s private there, right?”

“Uh, sure,” he said. The worst that could happen is he would get a lecture from Dojima about choosing his friends wisely, or some shit like that.

They headed up to his room, at which point Kanji said, “Sorry for bargin’ in like this… I thought it’d be a good place. Oh, first though… There's one more thing I figured out. That tofu chick, Kujikawa, stopped by our store the other day… She said the dolls were cute, so I told her I made ’em. Then she said that was creepy… It kinda stung, but I kept on showing her the other stuff I made… And in the end, she said, ‘Maybe you’re an amazing guy after all.’ It pissed me off the way she said it, but that aside… 

“I get it now… This is what he was talking about… I’ve just been throwin’ in the towel all this time. Of course no one could understand me… I been keepin’ my distance outta fear. So I decided that I’d do things my way, no matter how tough, but… It ain’t just hanging out with guys who understand you and telling the rest to get bent… You gotta make an effort if you want people to understand you. I wasn’t even trying. Not just about my hobby.

“But like, when the police suspected me… It didn't even cross my mind to try to tell ’em my story. I let ’em think whatever they want. And because of that, you, Ma, and that kid all got dragged into it. I didn’t put in the slightest effort to try and make ’em understand… It’s easier for me to act tough. So from now on I got two rules: Rule one! Be myself. Rule two! Get people to understand me. I want you to have this, senpai.”

Kanji handed over a rather cute strap, for his phone, he presumed. “This thing’s me being me. Now I can say it out straight. It is me. You’re my hero, dude, and my best bud,” he said as a rank message flashed by.

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds … shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Odin, the ultimate form of the Emperor Arcana.

“So, as far as gettin’ other people to understand me… Today I’m holding the ‘Oven Mitt Puppets 101’ class, right here! Don’t worry, even you can do it! It’ll be reeeal cute! Believe me!”

Tsuna laughed and nodded. “Can Nanako-chan join in?”

“Sure!”

####  08 September 2011, Thursday

Nothing much had happened over the previous few days aside from grinding. If nothing else, levels aside, wailing the tar out of so many Shadows was a decent outlet for Tsuna’s feelings of frustration.

Today, however, they were stuck on a train to Tatsumi Port Island for the morning. “At least these trains have more leg room than an airplane,” he commented, “even in normal class.”

They had been lucky enough to grab a set of the facing seats, so Tsuna was tucked between Sin and Mukuro. Across from them was Hayato, Kanji (who had latched onto Tsuna the second he saw him), and Yosuke.

“I have to wonder if the high school in Namimori would have forced us on these silly trips. I don’t remember any in first year, though.”

“What about where you went in Tokyo?” Yosuke asked.

Sin shrugged. “We ended up flying to Hawaii for some reason. I found it quite boring.”

“No way! Boring?”

“Yeah. Beautiful place, just stunning, but I’m not the type to laze on a beach and bake in the sun, or play volleyball.”

“The food wasn’t terrible, though,” Hayato said, playing along.

“Nothing beats Tsuna’s cooking,” Mukuro said smoothly.

“Well, duh, that’s a given,” Hayato shot back. “Nobody outclasses Tsuna in the kitchen, not even his mother.”

Tsuna grinned. “I kinda miss Kaiten, though. It was a cute place.”

“Kaiten?” Kanji asked.

“Yeah. A restaurant opened up in Namimori, just a tiny place, when I was five. It only had four tables, and it was open from noon to six. My mother was hired as the chef. The owner trained her, partly to make sure she was comfortable making the dishes on the menu, but mostly because one of the seven weeks in each cycle was foreign dishes.”

He saw that Kanji was getting confused so he clarified. “Okay, like… Week one was beef dishes, week two was pork, and so on, until week seven, which was foreign stuff. Then it went back to week one and beef dishes and just kept cycling.”

“Oh… Okay.”

“There was a touchscreen outside, where you could reserve a slot. They didn’t take walk-ins. You had to have a reservation, and you had to choose your meal when you made it. It was all very tightly run. The owner didn’t mind her ordering a little extra in the way of supplies, and then cooking a meal to take home with her, for the two of us, or me showing up occasionally at the back door and getting lunch in the kitchen with my mother.”

“The place was super popular,” Mukuro said. “Reservations were done weeks in advance once the place took off. There was one guy who came all the way from Tokyo to eat there, but he also had business in town. He bought stuff from a local craftsman to sell in the city.”

“Yeah. The guy my mother ended up marrying,” he said.

“And you … came here?” Kanji said. “Instead of going to Tokyo?”

“It’s just as well. I wasn’t all that keen on the idea of Tokyo full time.”

Hayato nodded. “Tokyo is massive and can be really confusing. You’re constantly taking the subway to get to places and the cars are so crowded. You’re packed in like sardines. Having leg room like this and an actual seat is sweet.”

Gekkoukan High School was massive and clearly paid for by plenty of rich folk.

“Whoa, what’s up with this place?” Yosuke said. “This school’s way too big! Wait… If we can’t beat ’em on size, we’re totally sunk…”

Tsuna discreetly rolled his eyes.

“Well, uh,” said a portly, suited man who had just been introduced as the principal. “I will explain about our fine educational institution and reasons for its establishment! Uh, I’d like to start with a proverb… ‘If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ ”

Chie yawned. “Is this guy in love with his own voice or what?”

“Chie!” Yukiko scolded. “He’ll hear you.”

The principal cleared his throat. “Our school is closed today, but, ah, because of this rare opportunity for cultural exchange—”

‘What, between filthy rich culture and dirt-grubbing peasant culture?’ he thought snidely.

“—some of our students will walk you through these halls. First, though, a student body representative will say a few words.”

Tsuna zoned out at that point, and only woke up when the girl, the Student Council President, focused on him and said, “Excuse me, could I bother you for a moment? This is today’s schedule for everyone. Could you hand it out later, please? I forgot to do it myself… Sorry to be so disorganized. And you all came so far…”

“Don’t worry,” he said, accepting a sheaf of paper from her.

The girl chuckled. “Thank you. In fact, I didn’t write the speech on my own. One of the former Student Council Presidents helped me. She was the—”

Tsuna zoned out again while still appearing to be listening. He came to again when they were in a fancy classroom.

“Welcome… Nice to meet you all. A meeting is only the beginning stage of parting, the Alpha and Omega. My name is Edogawa, and I’ll be keeping you company for this period. You are all from Yasogami High, eh…? Aaah, a high school of many gods. I had considered a lecture on Qabbalah philosophy… but I have a better idea. Eeeheehee… Since I was able to meet you all today, I shall tell you a story of partings.

“One could say that this is Japan’s oldest tale of curses. You all know about the gods who created this country, I assume? The two gods who gave birth to this country are the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami. They got along very well…

“But one day, Izanami died when giving birth to Kagutsuchi, the fire god. Extremely saddened by this, Izanagi left for the land of the dead to bring back Izanami. Yomi… The dark, dark underworld…

“There, Izanagi asked Izanami, who had become a dweller in that land of shadows, to come back with him to the land above. The goddess replied by saying she would negotiate with the god of the underworld, and asked Izanagi to wait for her. However…

“Izanagi became curious to know what was going on, so he broke his promise and set his comb alight to look around. What he saw … was the goddess Izanami, whose body was completely covered in filth and maggots! Terrified, Izanagi ran away, but the enraged Izanami chased after him!

“After dodging the many demons sent after him, Izanagi reached the entrance of the underworld, Yomotsu Hirasaka… He set in place a large boulder as a barrier between the two worlds, and got away unharmed. When the dreadful goddess reached the boulder, he said his farewell to her. This is the curse known as the ‘kotodo’.

“Curses beget curses … and Izanami said to the god: ‘If you’re going to treat me this way, I will kill 1,000 humans in your world each day!’ Izanagi regretfully accepted that the bonds between them were severed, saying: ‘Then I shall give life to 1,500 each day.’

“Thousands die, and ten thousands are born. That is the curse upon this country. …Many of you may have already known this famous story. Now, the etymology… The names Izanagi and Izanami come from the word ‘izanau’, which means ‘to invite’. I’d be delighted if you have accepted this story today as an ‘invitation’ to acquiring knowledge.

“That reminds me… In the olden days, people took this story seriously… Things such as lighting only one fire at night and throwing combs were taboo. By the way, at Hana no Iwaya, the grave where Izanami is said to have descended to the underworld…

“To this day, people decorate it with flowers when they hold festivals nearby. It may be merely ceremonial, but everyone wants to look beautiful. It’s how they show their consideration to the goddess who may feel that way. Eeeheehee…

“Ahhh, is our time up already? I may have gone on too long… Eeeheehee…”

‘What a coincidence,’ he thought, ‘considering my starter Persona is Inzanagi.’

He zoned out again during the ensuing tour and didn’t wake up again until they were standing in front of a suspicious-looking hotel.

“Alrighty,” Kashiwagi-sensei said, “here we are. The Seaside Clamshell Inn. We’ll be staying here tonight.”

Murmuring started up. “Is this … really a regular hotel?” one girl asked quietly.

“So what do you think?” Kashiwagi said. “It was me who found this place. It just opened not too long ago. It’s got that modern look—and the price was right! Personally I think it was an excellent choice.”

“We’re staying here?” another student asked fretfully.

“I mean, the sign does say ‘hotel’, but…”

“Dude, this totally looks like a lov—”

“You there!” Kashiwagi barked. “Don’t just stand there! March on in.”

Kujikawa came closer to the front of the crowd of students. “Um… This area is called ‘Shirakawa Boulevard’, and it’s—”

“That’s quite all right,” Yosuke said. “I don’t think I wanna know. Well, time to be brave.”

Most of the students streamed on in, but as they were about to move forward themselves, Tsuna heard a voice from behind and above them.

“Hm… Faster than I expected. This is quite the hotel. If they were to meet me, I wonder… What would be the look on his face?”

Tsuna turned and looked up. “Teddie? What are you doing?”

“The lonely bear inside of me went stir crazy!” Teddie said, dropping down to street level with a squeak.

“And you got here, how?”

“I took the train,” Teddie said brightly. “I knew where you were going thanks to that trip guide.”

“Right.” He didn’t even want to know where the bear got the money for it. “And why are you in costume?”

Kashiwagi chose that moment to come out to see why not all the students had entered. “Now, now, you kids aren’t bickering about your room allocations, are you?” She paused. “Oh. What’s with this giant teddy bear?”

“It’s a souvenir,” he said.

“My… It’s so … big…” she said huskily. “Go on, hurry on inside with it. By the way, these rooms are amazing. Every room has a waterbed! But don’t flip the wrong switch when you’re turning on the lights, or your bed will start spinning.” She turned and flounced back inside.

For some reason, that counted as a rank for the Star Arcana.

“I gotta pee,” Teddie informed him.


	13. λ21: 13: 09 September - 20 October 2011

## λ21  
13: 09 September - 20 October 2011

####  09 September 2011, Friday

They bailed on the school-approved activities and hit the nearest arcade to waste time. Teddie tagged along (after they made him lose the bear suit) and was delighted to be taught how to play video games, even if he sucked at them.

That evening a bunch of the students were going to a teen-friendly club. Tsuna almost suggested they go see a movie, but realized he wouldn’t at all mind spending the evening dancing with Sin, so they followed along. Teddie elected to stay behind so he could spin on a waterbed.

Blue Hat was there. “Is it permitted for high school students such as yourselves to be here?” she asked.

Yosuke took exception. “Wh-What? Dude, look who’s talking! You were here before we were!”

Samsara ignored all that, especially as Kujikawa was part of that group, and cozied up to the bar to get soft drinks. They were icy cold and so nice after a day in the heat and press of the arcade. He had only knocked back half of his when Sin took his hand and dragged him out onto the dance floor.

He grinned and blessed the day he had wised up and learned how to avoid being sealed, else this sort of activity would never be possible. He caught sight of Kanji at one point, staring at them, red-faced, but quickly focused back on his lover.

It was back to the bar after several dance tracks, though they ordered new drinks, since their original ones had been out of their sight and anyone could have tampered with them. Hayato and Mukuro had found local girls to dance with, so they were having fun as well.

They only stayed a couple of hours before heading back, but it was time well spent in his opinion.

####  10 September 2011, Saturday

The train was set to leave at noon, so they went to the station early so he could get a souvenir for Nanako. He picked out an Iwatodai t-shirt for her along with some mochi, then hopped on the train when it was time.

They grabbed facing seats again, though this time Teddie took Yosuke’s place. It was too damn bad they couldn’t have just disappeared into a different car and stepped _Between_ to get back, but it would have raised too many questions if one of his Social Links had noticed he was missing or came looking for him.

Teddie had eaten too much ramen at a stall outside the station and slept the entire way back, which was just as well, as he never had a chance to say something he shouldn’t in front of strangers to him and people not in the know.

Tsuna rolled into the house after the sun had already set to hear, “Welcome home!” from Nanako. “Did you have fun?”

“I would have preferred a theme park,” he said, kneeling at the table after he let his bag slip down to the floor.

“Oh, I wanna go to Destiny Sea! There’s this roller coaster that goes _whooosh_ into the water!”

Tsuna opened his bag long enough to get out his gifts for his cousin, then handed them over. 

Nanako eagerly opened the bag. “Wow! Thanks!” she said as she set the mochi on the table and had a look at the t-shirt. She looked toward the front of the house when the sound of the door opening was heard. “Hi, Dad!”

“Ah, you’re back,” Dojima said once he got into the house proper. “We just missed each other, huh?”

While Tsuna was confused with that statement Nanako said, “Look! Onii-san got me souvenirs!”

‘Did he come to the station to pick me up or something?’ he wondered.

“Hey, nice. Did you remember to thank him?”

“Of course!”

“Heh, I guess that came out of your own pocket,” Dojima said. “Thanks. …You went to Tatsumi Port Island, yeah? I guess that was no big deal for you.”

Once again, Tsuna wondered at what point his uncle would remember he had never lived in Tokyo.

“By the way, if the first years went along with you, Shirogane Naoto must’ve been there, too. You talk to him much?”

“Not really, no.”

Dojima nodded, not looking entirely believing of that statement. “He’s mature for his age, but he’s still a year younger than you. Try to make friends with him, will you? He’s a cocky brat, but he’s honest. The higher-ups are losing their patience with him… It doesn’t matter if his argument holds water or not. At this rate, he won’t accomplish anything but getting himself booted off the team. Adults can be a selfish bunch.”

‘I have clearly spent too much time in other countries if I have lost the ability to interpret the meaning behind the words of native Japanese people,’ he thought.

“Oh, sorry, you must be tired. Why don’t you take a bath? Oh, but don’t forget to take your stuff upstairs. Nanako, can you get the bath ready?”

Tsuna blinked and got up, grabbed his bag, and retreated upstairs. By the time he had his bag unpacked Nanako was letting him know the bath was ready, so he went to take a quick shower before a nice, long soak.

####  12 September 2011, Monday

“Good evening, and welcome to Niteline’s special Nitewatch Report. A suspect in the murders in Inaba was safely arrested recently. But what few people know is that the mastermind who brought him to justice was a high school detective. Tonight’s report will focus on this Detective Prince, Shirogane Naoto, whose handsome looks are sweeping the nation. Thanks for being on the show.”

The camera pulled back to reveal Blue Hat seated there.

“No, no, the pleasure is all mine.”

‘How exactly do people not realize this is a girl, especially with that voice?’

“Oh, his uniform is the same as yours,” Nanako commented.

“First, congratulations to you and the police for your recent arrest of the culprit. It was well known that there were a lot of mysteries surrounding this case, and you did a great job clearing them up.”

“I’d hesitate to say that the matter is ‘cleared up’ as such,” Shirogane replied. “It’s true that our suspect was behind Morooka Kinshiro’s unfortunate death. But when I cast my eye over the case as a whole, I detect a few things that seem out of place.”

“Oh… Like what?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot divulge details at this time. But this matter claimed the lives of three people. Hence, I believe even the smallest inconsistency must be investigated.”

“I… I see. I have to say, this is a surprise in light of the police’s official statement. N-Now for our next segment, ‘The Detective Prince’s True Identity’, where Naoto-kun tells us a little bit about himself. Amazingly, the Detective Prince has solved a whopping twenty-four cases. Sixteen of them were—”

“There’s a detective at your school?” Nanako said. “When I’m older, I’m gonna go to your school, too!”

Once the program was over he retreated upstairs, and wasn’t the least bit surprised when a window opened over his laptop screen.

“She’s playing with fire, but we expected that to happen,” Hayato said.

He nodded. “All we can do is wait. But… I get the feeling we should go into school tomorrow.”

Hayato groaned. “Yeah, fine. Blue Hat probably has a point to make.”

“Hey, if we’re lucky, she’ll get it out of the way early and we can swap with clones, get in some grinding or something.”

“Here’s to hoping.”

####  13 September 2011, Tuesday

Sure enough, on the way to school, Blue Hat was waiting for them as they walked along the flood plain.

“Good morning,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you all. There’s something I needed to discuss with you regarding the case. Could you please indulge my current theory on the matter?”

Tsuna nodded. Might as well get it out of the way.

“First, as regards commonalities between the victims, all of them were kidnapped before they were murdered. The victims were all locals who had been the focus of recent media attention, becoming suddenly well-known… That is the most likely scenario. I don’t believe there’s anything intrinsically unique about the victims themselves. …Haven’t you all come to the same conclusion?”

“That much was fairly obvious just from the evidence available, so yes.”

“Then, allow me to state my point. There was a long interval between the second and third deaths in this case. But after I applied the aforementioned criteria, I discovered several similar disappearances had taken place. Amagi Yukiko. Tatsumi Kanji. Kujikawa Rise. All of them disappeared shortly after being shown on TV, and two of those three are people you are friendly with… Either they escaped death somehow, or they faked their own disappearances in order to divert attention from themselves… Since you are also friendly to some who had ties to the victims, there came a point where I suspected one of you must be the culprit.”

His brow went up.

“This was a prior theory, since discarded. Putting together everything I’ve learned until this moment, I believe exactly the opposite. You aren’t the culprits. You may, in fact, be the only ones with the means to pursue the true perpetrator… Of course, this is all speculation. There is in fact a flaw in the theory.

“It doesn’t account for the third incident… Morooka-san’s murder. He has never been broadcast on television, and neither did he ever disappear. We must also consider the condition of his corpse. The first two victims are still listed with an unknown cause of death… But Morooka-san died of an easily identifiable blunt force trauma to the occipital cranium.

“The police have not satisfactorily resolved this discrepancy, yet they are desperate to close the case. Further action will be necessary to obtain some sort of decisive evidence. Well, whatever the outcome … the evidence should come to light. This is not a game for me,” she said severely, then walked off in the opposite direction from the school.

####  14 September 2011, Wednesday

The Midnight Channel showed a hazy, static-filled image of someone. If he didn’t already know who it was, the way the figure’s hip was cocked would have been a huge clue. Blue Hat usually stood that way.

####  15 September 2011, Thursday

The Midnight Channel’s image was strikingly clear that night. It showed some strange apparatus, like something out of a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Shirogane was there, obviously. “Good evening, everyone. I am the Detective Prince, Shirogane Naoto. Welcome to ‘Experiment of the Century: The Genome Project’. I will be experimentor and experimentee both in a forbidden yet wonderful bodily alteration process! You shall witness my departure into a new realm… The moment of a new birth! From the chosen day forth, I shall walk a completely different path in life! And I will share this glorious occasion, this memorable day, with all of you! Do stay tuned!”

“Well, that explains the equipment,” he muttered.

####  16 September 2011, Friday

“This presents something of a problem,” Daemon said. “Sure, we can rescue her like the others, but if she’s unaware of her ordeal in there, she might do another interview and try to get tossed back in again.”

“Would that even work?” Ken asked.

“Hell if I know,” Daemon said, “but she’s persistent and stubborn and has something to prove. She’s not going to give up.”

“She does have carry a certain credibility with the police,” Chikusa said, “even if they are greatly annoyed by her.”

“Intimidated by her intelligence and drive, as well,” Hayato added.

“I just had a thought,” he said. “Sorry, this is a bit off topic. How did Teddie get to Port Tatsumi Island? Either the Bounding Box here doesn’t work like I hoped, or it did and he managed to exit through a different TV.”

A look went around. “Well, fuck,” Sin said. “Let’s pray he doesn’t spill the beans to anyone. After what you said to him…”

He hummed. “Well, right now, I’m leaning toward letting her remember. But—we need to keep a close eye on her. If she even looks like she’s going to talk about her experience to the police, she needs to suffer a convenient fainting spell or something.”

His Mists nodded, eyes gleaming with resolve.

“Then, let’s head in. We should know more than enough for Teddie to sniff out her location.”

They ended up at a weird bunker in the woods. The Secret Laboratory, apparently. There were the usual nearly endless hallways, a very loud PA system spewing the usual warnings one might expect when infiltrating a secret laboratory, and a room every so often with the fox sitting there calmly in case they needed a full heal.

It was on B4F that they ran across an interesting door. When he tried to open it he heard a mechanical voice say: The research area is beyond this point. Entry is forbidden to ordinary combatants. Please present your ID.

“Right, guess we keep going until we stumble over an ID,” he said.

B6F had another locked door (Beyond this point is confidential. Entry is forbidden for ordinary combatants and researchers. Please present your ID.) and a chest which held a key item: Research Card.

“If you’ll notice,” Hayato said, “the door on this level forbade researchers. Any bets on us having to backtrack two floors for the other locked door?”

“That’s a sucker bet and you know it. Let’s head back up,” he said with a sigh.

Back at the other door they used the card to open it. One of the doors down there had a strong presence behind it and, once Dominating Machine was defeated, allowed them to open a chest with a Leader Card in it.

When they got down to B9F there was just a door in front of them, and a comment from Teddie of, “Something’s behind that door…”

“Break time!” he said, then took a seat on the mesh flooring. They broke out the bentos and had a quick meal, then got back up. He swiped the Leader Card in the reader and the door opened for them. Beyond it was the apparatus seen on the Midnight Channel, complete with circular saw and drill, huge banks of operating lights, and standing there in front of the operating table was Naoto and her Shadow.

“Ah, it’s about time you arrived,” Naoto said. “Dealing with this child has been quite a pain.”

“No! No, no, don’t go!”

“It’s useless speaking with you. I need to go back now.”

“Why? Why’re you leaving me here!? Why am I always left alone!? It’s so lonely… I don’t wanna be alone!”

Tsuna pulled some popcorn from storage and stood back to watch the train wreck in progress. His family decided that was a good idea and grabbed snacks for themselves.

“You wear the same face as me. It’s as if you’re implying we’re one and the same. But the difference between me and you is—”

“Why delude yourself!? I am you. These childish gestures are no mere affectation. They’re the truth. The fools all say it, don’t they? ‘You’re only a child,’ ‘Keep out of our business,’ and so forth. No matter how many cases you spend hours cogitating over, no matter how many crimes you solve, you’re a child in their eyes. It’s your brain they’re interested in. The grey matter locked up in that skull. As long as they need it, you’re an ace detective! But once you’re done, it’s back to the playpen with you. You haven’t the means to deal with society’s two-faced nature. You’re just a lonely child.”

Naoto did a double-take when she glanced back and saw them snacking unconcernedly, but was quickly distracted when her Shadow spoke again.

“I wanna be a grown-up. I wanna be a big boy now. Then they’ll see who I am. I… I want a reason for me to stay…”

“That’s enough. I can find my own reason for living…”

Shadow Naoto scoffed. “I’m telling you that’s impossible. You are but a child. How can you change that essential truth?”

“S-Stop it!”

“At your core, you admire the sort of ‘strong’ and ‘cool’ men who populate detective fiction. But in trying to emulate them, you must know that in truth, you’re nothing of the sort—you’re a child. There’s no avoiding first principles. Admit that you’re a child, and admit that there’s nothing you can do about it. Now, then! Our analysis is complete. Let us begin the body alteration procedure. You have no objections, do you … Shirogane ‘Naoto’?”

“Stop it!”

“ ‘Naoto’… Such a cool, manly name! But a name doesn’t change the truth. It doesn’t let you cross the barrier between the sexes. How could you become an ideal man when you were never male to begin with?”

“I won’t throw a tantrum,” Naoto said, her head angling back slightly, but not enough to see any of their reactions. She would have been surprised if she had. “That accomplishes nothing!”

Shadow Naoto chuckled. “How often I’ve heard those words from the adults. ‘Throwing a tantrum won’t solve anything, Naoto-kun,’ and other such bilge! They made you cry, didn’t they? Yet here you are, mimicking those same men. What exactly are you trying to justify?”

“What…?”

“It’s all right. You needn’t suffer anymore. That’s why you’re undergoing this body alteration procedure to begin with. You throw a tantrum, but it fails to change the situation a single bit. I can quite understand the feeling. After all … I am you.”

“That’s not true!!”

Tsuna packed away his snack and adjusted his caestūs in preparation of a boss battle.

Shadow Naoto chuckled and transformed into a hovering mechanical form of herself, with a winged jetpack and twin laser guns. “I am the Shadow, the True Self. What? Are you sick of yourselves, too? Then let’s begin the special operation!”

Naoto keeled over after witnessing her Shadow self transform and was quickly pulled out of the line of fire.

Given their gear, Shadow Naoto had practically nothing she could hurt them with. She did have an SP draining attack, which was a minor bother, and once they hit her a few times and caused a shift in her tactics, she started using an attack called Galgalim Eyes, which reduced the unlucky target to a single health point (and which was promptly healed by either Tsuna, Sin, or Ken), and … that was it, really.

She went down so fast it was both a relief and a disappointment (but not so much of one that Tsuna was willing to downgrade their gear just for a challenge).

Naoto groaned from her position out of the way and pushed herself up. “Where am I…? Oh. I remember you all arriving, and… That’s right, you saw everything,” she said, looking downcast. “I lost both my parents in an accident. I was still young, so my grandfather took me in. I was inept at making friends … so I spent my time reading detective novels in my grandfather’s study.”

“When I grow up,” Shadow Naoto said, “I’m gonna be an awesome, hard-boiled detective!”

“My parents were proud of their job. I had no qualms about following in their footsteps. An inherited occupation can feel stifling to many, but I welcomed it. I yearned for the day I could be a detective myself. Perhaps I inherited that desire from them as well.

“I was always alone… Seeing that, my grandfather must have believed it was his duty to help me realize my dream. I secretly aided my grandfather with his clients, and before I knew it, people started calling me Junior Detective. At first, I was delighted. But not everything went so smoothly…

“Not everyone welcomes my collaboration when it comes to solving cases… My status as a ‘child’ was sufficient to offend many of those whom I worked with. Were that the only issue, then it would have resolved itself with time… But though I will one day change from a child to an adult, I will never change from a woman to a man.

“My sex doesn’t fit my ideal image of a detective. Besides, the police department is a male-oriented society. If they had the slightest ‘concrete’ reason to look down on me, no one would need me anymore…”

“You don’t know that,” he said, “and I know you’re intelligent enough to realize that becoming an adult or male isn’t what you yearn for.”

“…You’re absolutely right.” Naoto got up and faced her Shadow. “I’m sorry… I kept ignoring you, pretending you didn’t exist. But you are me … and I am you. You’ve always been inside me. What I should yearn for—no, what I must strive for isn’t to become a man. It’s to accept myself for who I really am.”

Tsuna expected, and got, an overlay.

The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest. Naoto has faced her other self. She has obtained the façade used to overcome life’s hardships, the Persona Sukuna-Hikona!

“…In any event, you’re a devious bunch. I can’t believe you kept something like this hidden for so long. No wonder the perpetrator has eluded the police… But it’s apparent now, this case is far from over.”

“It’s definitely not over, but for the moment, let’s get you out of here,” he said.

“One Traesto coming right up!”

Everyone linked up and the “spell” was cast, landing them outside the bunker, and shortly thereafter they were back at the entrance to the TV World.

“As peculiar as it sounds, we exit through that stack of TVs,” he said, then, “Teddie, as always, you did a beary good job.”

Teddie squealed happily and rocked back and forth.

Mukuro went through the stack to demonstrate, and then they all exited, emerging into the Rokudo house. Naoto huffed, a bit out of breath, and sank onto a sofa. “I just realized. I’ve never even seen four of you before today.”

Ken hustled off into the kitchen as Tsuna folded himself down to the floor and removed his caestūs so he could check them over for damage. Everyone else arrayed themselves comfortably and began to do the same, Sin going so far as to break down his gun so he could give it a thorough going over.

“First,” he said, looking at Naoto, “we’ve known you were a girl since shortly after we first saw you, so it’s not like we were shocked or anything by what we heard in there.”

“—!” was her reaction.

“No, it’s not obvious to the usual shallow teenager,” he continued. “We’ve also been convinced that Kubo was only responsible for Morooka, for several reasons. One, we sincerely doubted he could enter the TV on his own, and two, the MO didn’t match. We know Morooka was never inside the TV; Teddie confirmed it.”

“Teddie…?”

He exhaled. “Teddie is … special. He’s like the opposite of us. He was a Shadow, one that developed self-awareness and intellect, sentience,” he said quietly, then more loudly, “He gained his own Persona and figured out he can come over to this side.”

“I can!” issued from the flat-screen. “But I’m grooming my fur right now!”

Tsuna rolled his eyes, then gratefully accepted a cup of oolong from Ken, who had bustled back out with a tray. “Thanks.”

Ken smiled and handed out more cups.

“Teddie helps us by sniffing out where people are after they get thrown into the TV World, and leads us there, so we can fight our way to them and, well, save them. He also keeps track of what weaknesses a given Shadow has, or what they’re resistant to, that sort of thing.”

“I’m beary good at it, too!”

Tsuna bit his lip, then had a sip of tea. “Anyway. We ended up inside the TV World by accident and made a deal with Teddie, then ended up saving Amagi, Tatsumi, and Kujikawa, and pulling Kubo out when he got tossed in there, and left him where the police would find him so he could be placed back into custody.”

“He was inside…? But…”

“Well, that was a big reason to believe he wasn’t the target we were after. Him killing Morooka I can believe. I think he took credit for the others to be noticed, to be special or something. The kid seemed pretty unstable, like he needed serious psychological help. You putting your life on the line just made it crystal clear that we need to keep looking.”

“I never doubted that you’d come for me… Although the reality turned out to be far beyond what I’d imagined. But how is it that Amagi, Tatsumi, and Kujikawa…”

“Their memories of that place—and it’s unique to each person who gets thrown in the way you were—were pretty hazy. I won’t say exactly how, but one of us has a special power, kind of like a psychic power, that allowed us to make it all seem like a nightmare for them. After all, they were safely returned to the real world, and we didn’t want them getting further involved with any of this.”

“And I’m different…?”

“You’re a detective. We knew damn well that you’d figure out something wasn’t quite right about what happened. You might have tried a second time to bait the killer, and then we’d have to save you again. You also have some level of credibility with the police, if it comes to that, though I expect they’d all think we’re crazy and need a nice long stay in a padded room in spite of your testimony.”

Naoto pulled a sour look and sipped her tea.

“That we got you out so quickly means that most people won’t even realize you were missing overnight. I take it you don’t remember how you got in there? No one else has able to remember.”

“…” Naoto had another sip of her tea, then said, “Right at the moment, no, but I will be thinking hard about it.”

Tsuna nodded. “The ones we’ve rescued tend to be a bit fuzzy-brained for a while. Hopefully something will come back to you.”

“The ones I investigated took a while to return to school…”

“Yeah, so we’re not going to be alarmed if you don’t show up for a while. Apparently going through that experience takes a lot out of a person and they feel poorly for some time. That being said, we should probably make sure you get home safe.”

“No one else is aware of any of this…”

“Right. We can’t help anyone if we’re stuck in a psych ward, and that’s where we’d end up if we tried to convince the police of what’s going on. My uncle seems to think it’d be a good idea for me to make friends with you, so I’ll be one of the people escorting you home. Spin it however you want.” He glanced at the clock. The clones would be back soon.

Words flashed up in for-your-eyes-only mode: Don’t worry. We’ll make sure she never sees the clones when they return.

He flashed up a message of his own as he sipped his tea: Maybe a late night visit and deeply-seated compulsion to prevent her from talking unless we’ve already spilled? I’m not feeling uneasy or anything, just cautious.

Daemon dipped his head in a slight nod.

Once the clones did arrive he finished the last of his tea and got up. His caestūs (seemingly) went into a drawer (though in reality were shoved into storage), and he looked to see if Naoto was done with her tea.

She recognized that it was time to go and got up, so Tsuna and Sin escorted her to where she was living. It was interesting, he thought. He wasn’t sure if she lived there alone, or if her grandfather had also come. If she really did end up feeling poorly enough to stay home until the cycle ended, as all the others had, the only people keeping an eye on her would presumably be them.

When he got home both Dojima and Adachi were in the living area, which annoyed him. He was further annoyed when Adachi, who looked a few sheets to the wind, loudly said, “Heeeey, welcome baaaack!”

“Sorry,” his uncle said, “we got off early today.”

“C’mon,” Adachi said with a drunken wave, “take a seat.”

Tsuna smiled tightly and said, “Sorry,” then continued on upstairs. He immediately dropped a Mist Barrier that would reject anyone but Nanako and fired up a nice, relaxing game of Evil Genius. He had a hard enough time with drunks due to the Tsow, but to see Adachi getting plastered in their house? In front of Nanako? No.

####  06 October 2011, Thursday

Fuck all had happened in the intervening days aside from grinding, fusing, tasks for Margaret (which gained him another two ranks for Empress), and skipping town for more interesting activities.

Naoto had stayed at home during that time, feeling poorly enough to arrange for her assignments to be sent to her so that she could complete them and turn them in when she came back. The fog had set in the night before, no one appeared on the Midnight Channel, and he was not surprised to see that Naoto showed up for school.

She was waiting for them at the gates.

“Since you’re here, I must assume you’re feeling better,” he said.

“Yes, thanks to you. I’d like to thank you once again for what happened.”

He nodded, seeing no reason to belabor the point, nor mention that she was wearing the male uniform.

“Hey, it’s the Detective Prince,” a female student could be heard saying.

“That’s no Prince,” said another. “I heard ‘he’s’ a ‘she’!”

“Huh? Y-You serious!? If he’s a she, then uh… O-Oh crap!”

“Awww… I’m kinda disappointed, but then again, there’s something neat about it…”

“Yeah… If you look at it a certain way, doesn’t she seem pretty cool?”

Tsuna rolled his eyes as Naoto murmured, “My, my… Rumors spread so quickly.”

“One tiny hint of gossip and they run a marathon with it, regardless of proof.”

“Th-Thank you,” she said. “But it doesn’t bother me at all. There’s no need to worry on my behalf.”

‘Sure, lady. Because everyone reorients their inner world view so quickly.’

“So please treat me as you did before. That aside, I’d like to discuss the case with you all. We’re dealing with a kidnap-and-murder case perpetrated by someone lurking in this very town. And it isn’t over yet… Let’s go over the finer points after school.”

Tsuna nodded, and they all proceeded inside to be bored senseless.

They went to the Rokudo house once released, and took various seats in the living area after Tsuna and Ken got drinks for everyone.

“I was expecting something to happen,” Naoto began, “so I was hyper aware. First, I heard the doorbell ring. But when I opened the door, I saw no one there. Just as alarm bells really sounded in my mind, someone grabbed me roughly from behind and covered my mouth with something. Immediately afterward, I was put into something like a sack and most likely carried on the culprit’s shoulder.”

Tsuna frowned in thought.

“The culprit seems to have used a chemical to incapacitate me, but luckily I wasn’t completely unconscious. I had been expecting a trick along those lines, so I was somewhat prepared. And of course, I was desperate to gather as much information as I could.”

“Thoughts on the culprit? What were you able to discern?”

“Judging by their actions and body type, I’d say the culprit is definitely a man. I heard no conversations or voices, so I believe he is acting alone. It’s after that that things got murky. I felt a single impact, which I assume is when I was thrown inside the TV… But the time from kidnapping to that point seemed too short. It was a matter of minutes.

“I finally understand why no one could recall much of what happened. Such a bizarre experience, with mental and physical fatigue on top of it… It’s only natural to be confused. And going by the surrounding circumstances, my kidnapping and everyone else’s were near identical.

“I can’t say for sure until I gather more concrete evidence, but Kubo’s only victim was Morooka. It was a copycat killing that mimicked the culprit’s method. The question remains, though, as to how Kubo learned of that world.”

“We’re not sure he did,” Daemon said. “He was being held at the hospital from what we could find, guarded by the police. Do those rooms have televisions in them? Large ones? Because if so, and someone managed to sneak in there, they could easily have tossed the kid in to to use him as a scapegoat for the other two murders.”

“He goes in, dies because he has no clue what’s going on and his Shadow kills him,” Hayato said, “and when his body shows up, people think, ‘Oh, that’s as good as an admission. He finally felt remorse and suicided.’ Or something along those lines.”

Naoto looked thoughtful.

“Additionally,” Sin said, “what happened to you happened to him. He argued with his Shadow, denied it, and it morphed into a boss we had to fight. The only person who’s been able to do anything with the TV without a Persona was Tsuna, and that didn’t start happening until shortly after we arrived in Inaba.”

Naoto ran an assessing gaze over him. “What … happened?”

He squinted as he thought back, and immediately discarded the idea of mentioning Igor or the Velvet Room. “There was gossip at school, about the Midnight Channel. People saying you could look into a turned-off TV at midnight on rainy nights. The rumor was that you’d see your soulmate on the screen. People had seen Yamano Mayumi.

“It sounded nuts, but there was no harm in trying, right? So I did, the next time it rained. An image appeared, fuzzy and covered in static. It startled the hell out of me. When the image winked out, I reached out to touch the screen to check for heat.”

Naoto nodded. “Sensible.”

“And my hand went through the screen. My next test was to see if it happened with any TV. Since I was at Junes the next day to buy a flat-screen for my room, I discreetly tried it there. If the TV was on nothing happened. But turned off? My hand would go through.”

“Scientific of you,” she said approvingly.

“Then we got startled and fell in. Wandered for a while and found a hotel room.”

Naoto’s eyes widened.

“Posters on the walls with the faces scratched off, of that enka singer. A noose hanging from the ceiling with a chair under it. We assumed it had to do with Yamano, represented her in some way. Aside from that it didn’t make much sense.”

“And then…?”

“We found our way back to where we started, and that’s when Teddie squeaked in. He showed us the way out and literally pushed us through. We ended up in a heap on the floor of the electronics department.

“Later on—I can’t remember how many days—we deliberately went in from here,” he said, nodding at the flat-screen. “I think it was after Konishi was found. Teddie misunderstood at that point and accused us of being the ones throwing people in, but we made a deal. He would always provide us a way out, and we’d investigate what was going on and do our best to stop it from happening again.

“Teddie led us to where Konishi landed, which was a representation of the shopping district, and specifically, her family’s liquor store. Shadows attacked us, and that’s when I just… Well, you were unconscious, so this won’t make much sense. But a card appeared, floating in front of me. I said ‘Persona’ for some reason, crushed the card, and my Persona appeared behind me. And then I used it to defeat those Shadows.”

“We went inside the shop after,” Sin said, “looked around. We could hear Konishi’s thoughts as if she was speaking them, like her last words. And then _our_ Shadows appeared,” he said, pointing to himself, Hayato, and Mukuro.

“…You fought them?” she asked.

Sin shook his head. “No, we talked to them. They weren’t saying anything we didn’t already know. Once they realized we weren’t rejecting them, we got our Personas. Later, all eight of us went in and the other four got theirs. And of course, the second we learned that Amagi went missing…”

“You went in to rescue her if you could, right. …So, it _seems_ obvious that there is someone else in Inaba, our culprit, who also had that power to enter the TV, possibly as inexplicably as yours. They could have tripped and fallen in, but…”

Tsuna shook his head. “Not unless Teddie lied. We had no way out,” he stressed. “To the best of our knowledge, we would have died the next time the fog came here in the real world, if Teddie hadn’t given us a way out. He only mentioned sensing two people being thrown in, and that matches with Yamano and Konishi.”

Naoto frowned again. “Then maybe our culprit accidentally pushed Yamano into a TV? And then … when she turned up dead … realized what he could do?”

“That makes a lot more sense.”

“Yamano was last witnessed at the Amagi Inn,” Chikusa said. “A lot of people could have had access, potentially. That’s not information we’ve been able to obtain, who was there the night she disappeared. They could have snuck in, for all we know.”

“The timing of Morooka’s death is about right, but it’s wrong in that we had just rescued Kujikawa. Kubo clearly figured out the circumstances surrounding when the first two bodies were found, which would explain _when_ Morooka was found, but I sincerely doubt he had any connection to the actual culprit.”

Naoto sighed. “Much of our speculation could be tested if we could ask Kubo in person. However… I’ve unfortunately been taken off the investigation. And I highly doubt that the police will believe any of this.”

“The police aren’t likely to admit they were wrong after saying on TV that it was Kubo,” Ken said.

“I believe,” she said, “that the primary cause of my dismissal was because I raised that possibility to them. The police won’t readily concede that they made false charges. All the more so if the accused is a juvenile. In fact, the overwhelming sentiment within the police force is to end this case with his arrest.”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “That’s not doing much for my faith in our law enforcement.”

“I have no doubt that the culprit will continue with his attacks,” Naoto said, looking vaguely embarrassed. “It seems we can only watch, investigate, and wait for him to make the next move… But this is no longer a mere job for me, or someone else’s affair. I want to know the truth of why people were targeted. Please allow me to join your effort.”

“Welcome aboard, Shirogane-kun,” he said simply, and was “rewarded” with a rank up message for the Fool Arcana.

A furry hand poked through the flat-screen, waving a pair of glasses. “Since I’m the King of Geniuses,” they heard, “I knew it would work out this way. Ta-da! Nao-chan’s glasses!”

Tsuna rolled his eyes again and took them from Teddie, then handed them to Naoto. “They help on the other side, with clearing away the fog.”

“Th-Thank you,” she said, then looked toward the TV, the embarrassed look returning. “They told me about you, Teddie. I can sympathize with your drive to find yourself. If I may help in any way, let me know.”

“Wow,” came from the TV. “What a nice girl!”

She blushed again, then shook her head and tucked the glasses in her pocket. “Have any of you seen a doctor recently?”

Tsuna blinked and shared a look with his family. They never saw doctors. “Uh, no… You’re worried that…”

She nodded. “Yes. It occurs to me that there might be side effects from being in the TV World for long periods of time. I admit I am curious about Teddie, as well, but given that he has no identity in this world, I don’t think they would give him a check-up. It’s not as though he would have insurance. And there’s his appearance…”

Tsuna shook his head. “That part wouldn’t be a problem. When Teddie gained his Persona, he also managed to gain a human form. The bear appearance is sort of like an alternate appearance at this point. But yeah, to the government he doesn’t exist, so that would be problematic.”

“I don’t see why we can’t get a check-up,” Daemon said, “but given that none of us have felt anything off in all this time…”

Tsuna snorted. “The last time I remember seeing a doctor was for vaccinations when I was much younger. Still, it’s a valid point. I don’t see the harm in it.”

Daemon quirked a brow at him.

“I don’t think it’ll turn anything up, either,” he replied to the unspoken question. “Call it a gut feeling.” He looked at Naoto. “We could go tomorrow after school, for your peace of mind.”

She nodded, looking oddly relieved.

“I wanna go!” issued from the TV.

Tsuna sighed and nodded. “Teddie, could you come over here, please?”

“Okay, senpai!” A moment later the bear emerged from the flat-screen.

“The only way we’re going to get you in there for a check-up is to pretend that you’re a homeless person. That means we’d need to get you a different outfit, dirty you up a bit, and then lie and say we dragged you along with us because we were concerned.”

Teddie drooped. “But my shining blond hair! My flawless skin!”

Naoto looked on the scene with some measure of skepticism.

“Lose the bear suit, kohai.”

Teddie heaved a sigh and unzipped his head, then shrugged the costume off, revealing his human form.

That startled an “Oh!” out of Naoto.

“How about this,” Daemon said. “We can go in two groups. Students in one, the rest of us plus Teddie in the other. We can discuss any results back here, where there aren’t any prying ears, incidental or otherwise. We’ll take care of disguising Teddie as a homeless person for the occasion and see if we can get x-rays due to him favoring his arm or leg or something.”

Tsuna nodded. “Do it.”

“You’re … the leader,” Naoto said, eyeing Tsuna. “Even at your age…”

He gave a nonchalant shrug. “It worked out that way, yeah.” He sure as fuck wasn’t about to induct a consulting detective into the mysteries of Flames of the Sky and the mafia so that she understood _why_ he was the leader.

####  07 October 2011, Friday

For their group Mukuro eased the system into slotting them in quickly, and they were given general check-ups without a fuss. Either Daemon of Xeul would be doing the same for their group, and using Mist to get Teddie seen.

They regrouped back at the house to discuss the results. Poor Teddie looked miserable in his homeless disguise and Tsuna was not surprised that the bear raced off to the bathroom so he could clean up and change.

“To start,” Daemon said, “standard tests showed nothing out of the ordinary for Teddie. An x-ray, however… That was too blurry to read, and they did try a second time with the same results. The machine has been slated for maintenance in case it’s malfunctioning. I don’t think going to a different hospital would net different results. Aside from that, our check-ups all came back normal.”

“Same here,” Tsuna said. “On a lark, I did some checking around last night on the internet. I mostly got directed to the Jungian model of the psyche. Considering the terms used in that, it made sense. The ego, the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, the self, persona, and the shadow, with persona being the ‘mask’ we wear in public in order to deal, with different ones for family, more casual friends, work, and so on, and the shadow being parts of ourselves we dislike or ignore.”

“Shadows are Shadows,” said Teddie, who came around the corner and took a seat. “I think they’re something that comes out of people… Um, I can’t really explain…”

Naoto nodded. “I performed my own research after the incident. ‘Persona’ and ‘Shadow’ are common psychological terms. Of course, the ones we’ve seen don’t quite fit those definitions. This is what was written in an unofficial project document that I happened to come across: a Shadow is suppressed power, and when controlled by one’s ego, it becomes a Persona.”

“So they’re basically the same thing,” Chikusa said, “but it depends on whether the conscious or unconscious mind is in control of it.”

“Someone strong enough and adaptable enough to harness that negativity into a mask, so to speak, that can be used—in this case, in our defense.”

“I was unable to find any information relating to the TV World, though,” Naoto said, looking annoyed.

Teddie sniffled. “After all that, they found out nothing about me… I wonder what I really am…”

Tsuna patted Teddie’s hand. “We’ll find out together.”

Teddie’s eyes went moist and a rank message flashed by. “Yeah… Thanks, sensei!”

Ken promptly got up and headed into the kitchen. He came back with a Topsicle for Teddie, which was curious, because as far as Tsuna knew they didn’t keep stuff like that in the house. He must have acquired it via window.

Teddie was instantly cheered up and happily devoured the offering.

“I’d say we could go into the TV, but the hospital took up a fair chunk of time. I wouldn’t be able to make it home in time to cook dinner,” he said. “How about we go tomorrow for a spell. Shirogane-kun can see just what it’s like in there, and maybe we can hunt down some proper gear for her.”

“Um… Naoto is fine,” she said quietly.

He nodded. “Naoto-kun, then.”

####  08 October 2011, Saturday

Naoto looked bewildered by the entrance and spent a good few minutes gazing around and trying to make sense of things. Tsuna had to remind her to put on the glasses Teddie had made for her, which provoked a blush from her for forgetting.

“So, I’m thinking we should do a Reaper hunt at the club.”

“Reaper…?” she said leerily.

“Big dude with leather and ominous rattling chains. They drop top-level gear. We can get you set up with armor, an accessory, and a gun. I assume you use guns, based on your Boss Shadow.”

“I have been trained in them, yes.”

“Awesome. First few rounds of Shadows, I want you to observe, so you can get a feel for things. The place we’re going is the dungeon we found Kujikawa in, so the Shadows there aren’t as difficult as the ones from, say, your dungeon.”

She nodded, but was clearly not quite getting it.

“Let’s go, sensei!” Teddie said, then squeaked off.

“Just a warning before we go in,” he said. “The music can be a bit … annoying. It gets to you after a while. Just try to tune it out.”

She nodded again, still uncomprehending.

“Right, let’s go.” They entered the portal and chose to start from 1F. Chikusa and Xeul kept an eye on her as they wailed on Shadows, though they went slow the first few times so she could get an understanding of how the “game” worked, then Tsuna leaned on his intuition in order to find a Reaper.

Even with all four front-line people attacking it took a while to take one down, so Chikusa had plenty of time to explain a few things to Naoto, such as how back row people could only heal or administer items, and that the most they would get is armor or an accessory as a drop, as to get a weapon for her she would need to be in the active party.

The Reaper dropped a Godly Robe, which was promptly handed over to Naoto.

Tsuna checked his watch and nodded. “We can try for one more. Tomorrow we can try for the weapon.”

He tracked down another one a short time later and another battle ensued. Unfortunately it dropped another Godly Robe, which was annoying. Tsuna just shook his head and said, “No big deal. Traesto, please.”

Teddie led the way back to the TV World entrance, and from there they exited through the stack.

“That was … exhilarating and…”

“Confusing and frightening at the same time,” he finished. “Until you get used to it, anyway, and then it’s great stress relief.”

“I noticed I had a gun,” she said, “and I don’t own one.”

Sin grinned. “That’s how it works, however that’s possible. Once you have a Persona, you suddenly have a weapon that’s suited to you. But what you’ve got right now is bog standard, bottom tier and won’t do much damage. The Reaper will drop a very nice gun for you, assuming it works the same way it did for us.”

“If you’re up for it, one of us can lend you their accessory, and you can be front line tomorrow,” he said, “get your feet wet on a few normal Shadows, and then we can try a Reaper to see if the weapon will drop.”

“Since I heal from the back row on those,” Ken said, “Naoto-kun can borrow my orb.”

“I think … I would like that,” she said, giving him a nod.

“Awesome, it’s a plan. And I need to get going or my poor cousin won’t get fed. Once I get the weekly shopping out of the way, we can head in, so plan for ten o’clock.”

####  09 October 2011, Sunday

When they went in that time, Naoto was part of the front line and looking rather nervous. They returned to the club and Tsuna started her off easy by going after a normal Shadow. Naoto quickly got used to the interface and how being in a battle actually felt.

“I am not very effective,” she said unhappily.

“We’re also using top-tier weapons,” he pointed out. “Let’s whack another couple of the normal ones, then we’ll hunt down a Reaper.”

Ten minutes and two Shadow groups later, he leaned on his intuition. The Reaper battle was a fair bit longer that time because of Naoto’s PoS weapon, but eventually they defeated the damn thing and a nice, shiny gun got dropped for her.

She took a few minutes to examine it and quietly admire it, then swapped it in and nodded.

“Right, let’s take a short break, then try for another orb,” he said, then sat down right where he was, unconcerned about Shadows. Teddie’s Persona had gained several abilities along the way, so his map showed not only where chests were, but also Shadows, even if they were off the already explored parts of the map.

Bentos were produced—and which Naoto passed off as a quirk of the game—and eaten, then he leaned on his intuition for another Reaper, which he tracked down within ten minutes. That one went quite a bit faster and thankfully dropped an orb, which Ken took and equipped.

“Sensei?” Teddie said. “I’m sensing that there’s another one of those weird bosses at the Secret Laboratory. We should probably go get rid of it.”

Tsuna checked his watch and nodded. “We can take another break outside the bunker, then go in and take care of it.”

Given that they had left from the final floor of Naoto’s dungeon, they were able to re-enter on that same level. The one thing they had noticed about Naoto’s inclusion was that she wasn’t protected against mind-altering attacks, so they had to be on top of any status effects she was hit with and quickly cure them.

Tsuna shared a look with his family that basically said, “It’s the soul augmentation and mental training.”

They were up against Extreme Vessel that time, and they only had one attack to worry about, Virus Wave, which had a chance to inflict poison. It was weak to fire, ice, electric, and wind, strong to physical and almighty, and blocked light and dark.

That being so, Naoto swapped out of the active party, which shuffled around to be Tsuna, Hayato, Ken, and Chikusa, and they took it down easily. It dropped a gun suited for Naoto, Algernon, but it was bog standard compared to the Black Hole the Reaper had dropped for her.

“And that’s the TV World,” he said on the walk back to the entrance.

“In a nutshell,” she replied.

“We’ve conjectured that these Shadows are like parts of the collective unconscious, things that get repressed, which makes then angry enough, so to speak, to attack people. But that doesn’t explain how any of this started or who’s behind the murders. Something’s been staring us right in the face, and yet we can’t quite put a finger on it. It’s incredibly frustrating.”

“I plan to do some investigating tomorrow,” she said. “Mid-terms are coming up on Friday, and I’d like to fit some in before I have to start studying in preparation for those.”

He nodded.

####  11 October 2011, Tuesday

“Morning, Tsuna-kun,” Chie greeted him as he approached the school gates. “We’ve got midterms later this week… We should have a study session with everyone after school! We’re all in the same boat, right? Let’s help each other out!”

He hummed.

“Okay, so what if I’m more on the ‘being helped’ side and not on the ‘helping others’ side? C’mon! Help those of us who are academically challenged! I’ll invite everyone! Please!”

“…All right. We could go to the Junes food court, so we’d have drinks and snacks handy.”

When they arrived he noticed Nanako was seated at one of the tables, and also that Teddie had shown up. He would have to remember to ask the guys at home whether Teddie had come through their flat-screen or not. Tsuna headed for Nanako’s table and took a seat.

“Onii-san,” Nanako greeted. “What are you doing?” she asked on seeing them produce notebooks and textbooks.

“We agreed to come for a study session,” he said. “Exams are in a couple of days.”

“Oh, there you are.”

He looked up to see that Chie had arrived, followed by Yukiko, as well as Yosuke, Rise, Kanji, and Naoto, oddly enough.

“Hi, Nanako-chan,” Chie said cheerfully.

“Hello, Nanako-chan,” Yukiko said, then followed up with, “Come on, let’s start with proving the trigonometric identities.”

Chie groaned. “Jumping straight into math…”

Kanji and Rise found common ground in their own maths studies, and Naoto offered to help them.

“Oh? Are you as smart as everyone thinks?” Yosuke said. “Could you, uh, lend me a hand, too?”

Naoto’s eyes widened. “Oh, um, I wouldn’t know where to begin with second-year subjects.”

“Aw, man,” Yosuke whined.

“That’s it, I quit,” Kanji said. “This just ain’t my thing. The hell with exams. It’s time for my animal crackers.”

Rise perked up. “Ooh, can I have some, too? I wanna find the penguin!”

Kanji jerked back. “Hands off the penguin! It’s mine!”

Tsuna exchanged a look with Sin; so much for the “study” part of studying. He was amazed that Chie had managed to drag first years into the “study” session. Samsara at least appeared to be studying for the exams while listening to the others squabble, though Naoto had enough sense to abandon trying to help Kanji and Rise and instead accepted help from Hayato.

“I’m gonna go get a drink,” Chie announced. “Yukiko?”

“Oh, yeah…”

Those two got up, and were quickly followed by Yosuke, Kanji, and Rise—anything to avoid actually studying.

“Teddie says he doesn’t know who he is,” Nanako informed him. “That’s so weird.”

“ …Being on this side is really fun. But the more I feel that way, the more I want to know who I really am… I’ve surfed the net, read manga, watched TV… I even went to a place called the libeary, but I still can’t find anything about me… Still, I’m starting to get an idea.

“I lived in that other world. That world was my reality… But now, I have a feeling that it was born from the minds of people on this side… And over in that place filled with Shadows, I think I was some sort of special being… I don’t remember anything from back then, though… Maybe it’s that ‘amnesia’ thing I read about in a book the other day.”

Naoto looked up. “There are some aspects of the other world that make it seem as though it’s rooted in human thoughts,” she said quietly. “Still, there’s no point in applying the principles of logic and deduction to a place like that… But the fact that you existed in such a world from the beginning adds credibility to your theory. There is little doubt that you are a ‘special being’ on the other side. If you yourself know nothing about it, perhaps it’s true that part of your memory is missing. Tell me, what is the earliest memory you can call to mind?”

“It’s from a while ago. I’ve always lived there, as far as I could tell. Then it started to get noisy, so when I happened to bump into sensei and his friends, I asked them to do something about it…”

“I see… If you’ve always been on that side, you’d have no sense of time or days…”

“I think Teddie must be a king. I read in a story that a king was all alone inside a forest because of a bad guy’s curse. Isn’t that what happened to you, Teddie?”

“A King… Well! When you put it that way, it sounds about right…”

“Onii-san, is melon soda okay?” Nanako asked him.

He got out money for her and said, “Sure. There’s enough here for all of us.”

“I’ll go with her,” Mukuro offered, and got up.

“Am I really a king?” Teddie asked him.

“Maybe so,” he replied. “You are special.”

Teddie pulled off a passable villain laugh. “If I am a king, I’ll get to smooch girls every day!” he crowed as a rank message flashed by.

“You can hope,” he said dryly. “Do you think those guys will get any actual studying done?”

Sin snorted and shook his head. “Not if this start is indicative of anything.”

####  20 October 2011, Thursday

When Tsuna got home after exams were finally over, Nanako wasn’t in her usual spot. She arrived a few moments later and walked up to him. “There was a letter in the mailbox for you,” she said cheerfully, and handed it over. “Oh, my show is almost on!”

Tsuna’s brow furrowed; who would be writing to him? It was addressed to Dojima Tsunayoshi, but there was neither a name for the sender nor a return address. He went upstairs to drop off his bag and open the letter.

_don’t rescue anymore_

He tucked it back into the envelope and opened a window. Xeul caught sight of it and wandered over with a quirked brow.

Tsuna held up the envelope. “This came today,” he said, then shifted it over. “We can talk about it tomorrow, since one person would be missing.”

Xeul nodded and picked it up as Tsuna stored the window. They could deal with it tomorrow, once Naoto was also there to have a look.


	14. λ21: 14: 21 October - 04 November 2011

## λ21  
14: 21 October - 04 November 2011

####  21 October 2011, Friday

When lunch rolled around he made it a point to find Naoto and tell her there’d be a meeting after school; she walked with them once classes were out.

“Let’s go into the kitchen. I’m in the mood to bake something,” he said and, when they were assembled, handed the letter over to Naoto (Sin had slipped it to him on the way to school) before opening the pantry to get out the dry ingredients for brownies.

Naoto took in the brief message and said, “Did you show this to your uncle?”

Tsuna shook his head. “And I don’t plan to.”

“Dojima-san is trustworthy, but it may be best to keep this to ourselves. He will ask why you received such a letter, and if he were to put you under surveillance, our hands would be tied. If this letter is real, what’s most important isn’t what it says… 

“It’s the fact that it was delivered to the Dojima residence, addressed directly to you. This means the culprit knows in great detail who has been interfering with his crimes… And of all of us, he chose to deliver his message to the Dojima residence, home of a police detective.

“I’d have this letter checked at a crime lab if I could… But even then, I doubt they’d find anything. The text is a warning, while the subtext expresses the culprit’s confidence that we can’t use it to pinpoint his identity.”

“Teddie mentioned last night that he’s been sensing someone watching us while we’re over there,” Daemon said. “I doubt it has anything to do with the Midnight Channel, if only because we go in during the day, and that only shows up at midnight when it’s raining.”

“There haven’t been any rumors, either,” Hayato said. “Not that I’ve heard, anyway.”

“We started wondering if the culprit was sneaking in behind us,” Xeul said, “but then how would they get out? Unless there’s some other exit we have no knowledge of, and that even Teddie’s unaware of.”

“It doesn’t help,” he said as he shoved the pan into the oven, “that my uncle has been suspicious of us since we got here.”

Naoto’s brow went up.

Tsuna pursed his lips. “For three reasons,” he said to her. “One, these guys lived in Tokyo for several years, and I guess that makes a person suspicious to small town police? Two, the murders started after we arrived. The third has to do with a secret that’s not mine to tell, and I’m not even supposed to be aware of it.”

“…For now, we need to keep in mind that the culprit knows who we are,” Naoto said. “As long as we’re all aware of that, and keep a keen eye out…”

Tsuna sighed. “There’s not much else we can do. It’s just one more frustration on top of the pile we already have.”

####  22 October 2011, Saturday

During Homeroom the male and female class representatives faced the class.

“Well, as you all know, next week is the Culture Festival,” Male Rep said. “And as you also know, we still haven’t decided what our class is going to do for it.” He sighed. “You guys don’t even care, do you?”

“We’re going to decide based on the suggestions we have so far,” Female Rep said. “Please vote for one of them. Here they are: break area, video room, and study room. Oh, and one more, I see. Group date café.”

“Heeey,” Yosuke said with quiet smugness, “who put in a suggestion like that?”

“What’s … a group date café?” Yukiko asked in her usual confused manner.

“Who knows,” Chie said. “But I doubt anyone will vote for it. Our class is actually a pretty serious bunch.”

“Yeah, it sounds like a joke idea,” Yosuke added. “You gotta have one weird one mixed in, y’know?”

Female Rep waved a sheaf of small papers. “We’ll be passing around vote sheets. Just circle one of the suggestions.”

Tsuna circled “study room” on his, if only because it would require no effort whatsoever.

The votes, once collected, showed a winner in “group date café”, which sent Yosuke into a panic. “Wha—first place!? What are we gonna do!?”

“Don’t ask me!” Chie said. “This is your fault! I do wonder, though. Do all these people who voted for it not realize they have to run it themselves?”

“I’ve never been on a group date before,” Yukiko said, “so I was a little curious.”

Chie looked at her best friend in shock. “What the—you voted for it!?”

“Yeah… I thought it would be sad if no one voted for it.”

“But Yosuke-kun’s the one behind it…”

“H-Hey! It wasn’t just me! It came in first place! The public agrees!”

Male Rep said, “Well, since the majority rules, we’ll be doing the group date café. But what does that even mean…? Is it like speed dating? Can we really pull this off?”

“Actually… Would the teachers be okay with this?” a random student asked.

“Dude,” said a random guy, “how could Kashiwagi-sensei say no?”

“Kashiwagi-sensei is busy getting ready for those two notorious pageants,” Male Rep stated. “That’s why she’s leaving it up to us students to decide what to do.”

“Yeah, right! She just dumped it on our laps ’cause she didn’t want to bother!”

‘Yosuke clearly deserves some bad fortune his way,’ Tsuna thought as he walked through the shopping district on the way home. What, did the guy think he would get to sit back to enjoy the trainwreck? Mukuro had gained a particularly evil gleam to his eyes, so Tsuna assumed his Mist was already on the job.

“You’re…”

Tsuna looked sideways to see a man straight out of a cliché. He wore a black suit and sunglasses. Black Suit was giving him an appraising look. “Do you know about luminol reactions? What part of the body do you test for DNA? What’s the best way to obtain someone’s email address? What ten things can you learn from footprints?”

Tsuna gave him a bored look and readily answered the bombardment.

“I see, I see… You are quite an interesting young man. Do you know Naoto-sam—oh, er… You know a detective by the name of Shirogane Naoto, correct…?”

“Yes, I do.” ‘Naoto-sama, huh? This guy must be connected to Naoto-kun’s family.’

“Yes, I know you know him. Deliver this to him. He will understand.” Black Suit handed over a card. “Good day, then,” he parted with, then hastened off.

‘I am going to conjecture that this is a plan by the grandfather to help Naoto-kun make a friend. It’s … surprisingly sweet, actually. Going along with it shouldn’t hurt. Much.’

####  23 October 2011, Sunday

He found Naoto by the expedient of asking Daemon, as his brother and Xeul continued to keep an eye on the girl.

“Hm?” she said distractedly as she intently observed the back side of the shopping district, specifically near the Konishi Liquor Store and Tatsumi Textiles. “Er, I apologize,” she said when she registered who was bothering her, “but I have something I want to think about…”

He offered her the card.

“What’s this…?”

“A man in a black suit gave it to me after ascertaining that I knew you. He said you would understand.”

“He said I’d understand…? What’s that supposed to mean? …Excuse me, but could you please accompany me for a brief period? I’d like to hear more about what transpired when you were given this card. This isn’t the right place for that. Please, it won’t take long.”

“Sure,” he said agreeably.

They ended up at one of the covered tables at the flood plain. “I apologize,” she said, “I just wanted to talk someplace quiet. What sort of person gave this to you?”

“A man in a black suit who seemed to already know that I knew you.” He could have mentioned the pop quiz he had been subjected to, but that might make it too obvious.

“Which means … it’s possible that he’s been snooping around, gathering information on you or me … or even the case. The man must also know you, as well.”

Tsuna could _easily_ believe her grandfather had his men keeping a discreet eye on his (presumably) beloved granddaughter.

“He wouldn’t have entrusted the delivery to anyone he didn’t know… But this is a small town; he could easily have looked up my address. Why go to the trouble of giving the card to you…? Intriguing.”

‘Aw, she’s hooked now,’ he thought with amusement.

“Is he involved with this case? Or another case altogether…? If it’s me he’s after, he could be anyone. Oh, I’ll keep the card. The man is most likely still here in Inaba. I cannot drag you further into this.”

“Eh, no. I’d worry, sorry. I can’t back out now.”

Naoto shot him a surprised look. “Huh…? Er, well… It’s good to know you’re worried about me, but… I’m sorry, I seem to have a tin ear for other people’s feelings. I’ll look into this card and report my findings to you. So … don’t worry about me. As our leader … I know you have a lot on your shoulders, so…”

He was mildly surprised by that; _she_ was worried for _his_ sake. He was not surprised in the least when—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Fortune Arcana.

—flashed by. He _was_ surprised (and amused) when—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 1!

—also appeared, along with little fireworks and multicoloured sparkles. Someone in Samsara was having a bit of harmless fun at his expense.

“…While we are here, why don’t we chat a little?” she asked almost diffidently. “Ah, yes, there was something I wanted to ask you…”

He nodded solemnly.

####  24 October 2011, Monday

‘Oh look, I got perfect scores again,’ he thought as they checked over the exam results. Naoto passed by and quirked a brow at him, so he nodded, and once they were released from school took a walk with her back to the the flood plain.

After she sat down she took the card out. “As you can see, nothing is written on it. It’s just a plain white card. But it does feel a bit stiff, given its thinness… Without any indication of its contents, however, I have no idea who sent it. I’d chalk it up as a prank.”

“It’s not very ‘fun’ for a prank,” he commented.

Naoto smiled, surprisingly, and laughed a little. “One would expect there to be more. Ah, excuse me,” she said as her phone began to ring.

Tsuna politely looked away.

“Yes, it’s me. …Ah, Yakushiji-san. What’s the matter? …A thief…? In the Shirogane estate? …Yes. …Yes. …I see. …I don’t keep anything in that room that I’d miss terribly. You have already reported this to the police, I assume? …Then I’ll leave the rest to you. As long as Grampa is safe, it doesn’t matter. I can’t take my eyes off this case yet.”

She hung up and tucked the phone away, then looked uncomfortable. “You couldn’t help but overhear that… That was Yakushiji-san, my Grampa’s secretary. It appears that someone has broken into the Shirogane estate…

“My room was targeted, and he wanted to know if I could think of any particular item the thief might have been after. Several items pertaining to me were also stolen from Grampa’s inventory. I don’t know about those, but my belongings aren’t of any particular value, so…”

Tsuna nodded at the card.

“Yes, that’s precisely what I was thinking,” she said with a nod. “Regardless, you don’t have to worry about me. We both have more pressing matters to attend to. …I’m not sure how to react to you … er … worrying about me…”

A rank message, followed by—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 2!!

—flashed by, complete with sparkles and fireworks. It was a damn good thing it was in for-your-eyes-only mode.

“People who care worry,” he said simply.

Nanako beamed at him and handed over a ring. It seemed she had glued a bead to a simple ring as his ‘good grades’ gift—and why _was_ Dojima snooping on those and then telling Nanako? Had she asked him to?—but he could tell the thing carried an enchantment of Angelic Grace. It again raised the question of how his cousin was managing to create enchanted items as a clueless six year old. Was the old goat not entirely wrong when it came to the ‘power of love’ or something?

“Nanako-chan… Thank you. This is a wonderful gift.” He gave her a cozy hug, which made her beam again. He would have to make her a special treat or something for being too damn adorable. He was pretty sure they had the stuff for dango, so…

####  26 October 2011, Wednesday

He ran into Naoto again, by the shoe lockers. Samsara melted away as usual once it looked like he was getting his Social Link on.

“This…”

He finished putting on his shoes and went over to investigate.

“This was in my shoe locker,” she said, indicating a sealed letter.

“Is this like that card business?

“I thought so, too, at first. But it seems that’s not the case,” she said, looking at the letter intently. “This time, the sender’s name is clearly written. Judging by the name and the handwriting, the sender is a woman. She thoughtfully provided her year and class. When one factors in the heart-shaped seal as well, it’s hard to imagine this is related to my job in any way. In other words, there is no need to read it.”

He wasn’t the least bit surprised the Detective Prince was getting love confessions in the time-honored tradition of slipping a note into a shoe locker.

Naoto sighed. “I apologize. I wasted your time with this pointlessness. How misleading. A sealed letter at a time like this…”

“What will you do with it?” he asked quietly.

“I cannot dispose of it on school premises, of course. …I’ll take it home and feed it to the shredder,” she said bluntly. “Whether the sender is male or female, I have no intention of responding. I have no time to be dilly-dallying with callow love affairs… I assume the same is true for you? Saying they love me without even knowing me. Ludicrous.

“Let’s go. Would you like to stop somewhere on the way? There are still some questions I have regarding the case.”

The (by now) usual—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 3!!!

—flashed by after the “normal” rank message, though he did note whichever one of them was doing it kept incrementing the exclamation points to go with the rank level.

####  27 October 2011, Thursday

“Is it just me, or is he practically over-the-top smug about something?” Sin said, jerking his chin at Yosuke, who was walking a short distance in front of them.

Tsuna hummed.

The bulletin board beyond the shoe lockers had a crowd around it. A discreet window let him see a paper with the headline written in large letters: The Miss Yasogami High Pageant!

A Cardboard Cutout in the crowd groaned. “On top of planning it, Kashiwagi-sensei’s gonna be in it!?”

“So that’s why she agreed to plan this event!”

Indeed, the name Kashiwagi Noriko was on the entry list. Also included were: Ohtani Hanako; Amagi Yukiko; Satonaka Chie; and Kujikawa Rise.

“Wow, there’s a lot of signups here. I’m surprised so many people took an interest.”

“Whoa! Kujikawa Rise!? Seriously? Oh man, trust a celebrity to kill the fun of it all…”

Tsuna zoned out as he finished swapping his shoes for school slippers, but tuned back in when Yosuke wandered by looking concerned.

“Yo. Are you free for lunch? I dunno why, but Chie asked me to come to the roof then. She looked pretty serious… I wonder if something’s happened.”

“Uh, sure,” he said, figuring he had everything to do with three of those names and was going to get reamed for it.

“You better have a damn good explanation for this!” Chie growled.

Tsuna sat on a handy edge and opened his bento. No reason not to eat while watching a trainwreck in progress.

She was accompanied by Yukiko (who looked confused) and Rise (who looked amused).

“F-For what?”

“The beauty pageant! You wrote down our names without telling us, didn’t you!?”

“N-No! It wasn’t me!” Yosuke protested unconvincingly. “Why do you automatically blame me!? I mean, if you don’t wanna do it, just say no, right? Like it was just a joke.”

“We wouldn’t be so pissed off if we could do that,” Chie growled in his face. “With Kashiwagi-sensei planning this year’s event, even those who got entered by other people can’t back out!”

Yosuke took a cautious step back. “Seriously? Must’ve been something in the fine print I overlook—”

“So it was you!” Chie screeched, advancing again.

“Oh, crap!”

Rise tilted her head. “Do _you_ want us to take part in the beauty pageant?”

“W-Well yeah… I mean, you guys know how popular Yukiko-san is, and on top of that we have an idol. What’s the point of having a beauty pageant if these incredible girls aren’t going to take part!?”

“…So where do I fit in!?” Chie growled, then flailed her arms. “Well, excuuuuuuse me for not fitting in!”

Yosuke took a few more steps back, then cast a semi-desperate look Tsuna’s way. “What about you? You want them to be in it, right?”

Tsuna paused, hashi halfway to his mouth with a bit of rice, and said, “Why would I care about a beauty pageant?”

Chie’s burning gaze turned on him, then her expression softened. She clearly remembered his words early on, and that night at the club on Port Tatsumi Island. Chie turned back to Yosuke. “This is all on you. Just you wait…”

They were stuck in their classroom after school, forced to “work” on the group date café thing. Chie and Yukiko had been let off classes early to get supplies, and returned right around the time the final bell went.

“Where’d you guys go?” Yosuke asked.

“Over to Junes. We had to get some paint and cloth for the decorations.”

“Thank you,” Female Rep said. “Did you remember to have them write an invoice?”

“Yeah, I think they understood what it was for, so they wrote it without us having to ask.”

“There’s some things I want to go over about the day of the event,” Male Rep said.

“Is this about the group date café?” a Cardboard Cutout asked.

Male Rep nodded. “Yes, since Yosuke-kun’s leading the executive committee.”

“…Wait, what!?” Yosuke yelped.

“It was your proposal, right?” Male Rep said firmly.

“Are you serious…?”

“Well, all you have to do is the reception. After people sign in, have a few guys and girls sit facing each other at a table. Conduct a short session first where they ask each other questions. After about half an hour of that, it’ll be confession time. Get them to select the number of the person they like. If the other person accepts, that makes them a couple—hey, are you listening?”

Yosuke sighed. “Yeah, I hear ya…”

“Hey, Tsuna-kun,” Dojima greeted him with when he got home. “I heard you got top marks on that last exam. Keeping up your studies while taking care of Nanako, too…? You’re one hard worker, aren’t you? I need to act like an uncle every so often and give you some spending money. Here you go—a big tip,” he said, forking over ¥50,000. “But don’t spend it all in—nah, you can use it however you like.”

A serene smile slid onto his face out of habit as he said his thanks, then he retreated upstairs to drop off his bag before coming down to make dinner.

####  28 October 2011, Friday

There was another commotion that morning around the bulletin board. Another discreet window showed him it was about The “Miss” Yasogami High Pageant, which apparently involved cross-dressing male students. Funnily enough, Tsuna’s name was on it, and the handwriting looked suspiciously like Daemon’s.

A Cardboard Cutout said, “Hey, it’s Yosuke-kun! We’re expecting great things from you!”

Yosuke laughed. “They’re doing the cross-dressing pageant again this year? Man, they never learn, do they? Ooh, some people have signed up already. Man, what idiots would want to be in this thing? Let’s see… Hanamura Yosuke…” Yosuke stepped back in shock. “Meeeeee!? Wait, and Tatsumi Kanji, and Dojima Tsunayoshi!?”

Yosuke backed up again, then turned and spotted him. He dashed over. “It’s them. They must’ve done this…” He dashed off toward the stairs.

Tsuna rolled his eyes as the Cardboard Cutouts continued to gossip.

Up in their classroom he saw Yosuke flipping out. “You better have a damn good explanation for this!”

“For what?” Chie said with innocent confusion as Kanji wandered in looking confused.

“For what, my ass! For signing me up in the cross-dressing pageant. It was you, wasn’t it!?”

“Ooh, yeah, that thing,” she said. “Rise-chan started saying, ‘Let’s all have fun with this!’ so I didn’t really have a choice. And Kashiwagi-sensei seems happy, too, now that there’s more people involved in it.”

“You little—! This is cross-dressing! _Cross_! _Dressing_!”

Chie shrugged. “Well, you’re the one who started it! It’s because of you that we can’t back out of the beauty pageant, so it serves you right!”

“That’s beside the point!”

“Don’t worry,” Yukiko said. “We’ll make you absolutely enchanting. Okay?”

“That’s not what’s important here!”

“It’s about a man’s pride, damn it!” Kanji said, waving a fist around.

Yosuke turned to Tsuna. “What about you?”

He blinked slowly. “I know exactly who signed me up. I’ll also have to figure out how to … repay … them for it. It’s no big deal anyway. It’s not like your life is over because you have to wear a dress or something for a few minutes. What, you also have a problem with wearing yukata? Man up, dude. You pretty much asked for this as revenge.”

“This is absolutely out of the question!” Yosuke said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Chie said. “This has nothing to do with pride or any of that. You already know, right? Once someone signs you up, you can’t back out. If you’ve got a problem with that, go talk to Kashiwagi-sensei.”

“Th-There’s no way she’s gonna listen!” Yosuke wailed.

“Wha—!? Why’re you giving up!? I ain’t doin’ this! Period!”

Yukiko gave Kanji what looked to be a genuinely concerned look. “Are you still okay as far as the mandatory attendance policy? I don’t think it’d be wise to disappoint a teacher too much.”

Kanji just stared at her, then hung his head.

“Just leave it to us to dress you guys up,” Chie said confidently. “Rise-chan’s with us, too. There’s no way you won’t turn out pretty.”

“Y-You’re positive we’ll be pretty…?” Kanji asked.

“I guarantee it,” Yukiko said.

“Hey!” Yosuke rounded on Kanji. “Why’re you suddenly fine with this!?”

“Well, if we gotta do this, might as well go all the way with it!”

Tsuna smiled at the kid, feeling a bit of pride on his behalf.

“There’s nothing manly about being a woman! I seriously refuse…”

“Kashiwagi-sensei’s sure gonna get angry if you don’t show up,” Chie said smugly. “Maybe you and Tatsumi-kun can be classmates next year.”

“Wh-Why is this happening…?” Yosuke moaned. “We all end up in the same boat, without our consent… What kinda joke is this?”

“The exact same joke you pulled on us!” Chie reminded him sharply.

While class was in session he slipped a note to Chie, telling her not to worry about him. He had it covered insofar as his “costume” for the contest was concerned. 

After classes he ran into Naoto again at the shoe lockers. He quickly swapped his school slippers for his normal shoes and went over to see why she was staring so intently at something.

“It’s…” She had a card in her hand.

“Is this the same as last time?”

“Yes, it’s unmistakable,” she said firmly. “Judging by its appearance, it’s on the same cardstock, the same size, unsigned just like last time… I’m almost certain this came from the same person. …Let’s talk about this someplace more private.”

They ended up at the flood plain again. The card read, when she showed it to him:

> #### Dear Detective,
> 
> Your prized possessions are in my hand.  
>  Can you recover them? The game is afoot.
> 
> #### —The Phantom Thief

“It seems this is the work of the figure who snuck into the Shirogane estate. I’ll send this to Yakushiji-san so he can turn it into the police as evidence. The Phantom Thief?” Naoto frowned. “How absurd… I haven’t the time to waste on this…”

“Yet you seem uncomfortable with that,” he said. “You’re going to ignore it?”

“I-I’m not fretting! I’m just upholding the Shirogane name in seeing this case through to the end.” She looked down. “Although… He broke into our estate and sent me this challenge. Leaving this in the police’s hands could jeopardize the honor of the Shirogane name…”

She made a sound of frustration. “That’s why I don’t like this! When I’m with you, I always seem to lose my composure… I don’t want to get involved with this sort of childish game. But … to ignore it only makes me angry!”

After making absolutely certain his amusement wasn’t showing on his face he said, “Let’s catch him together.”

She look up with a scowl. “Of course we will. You’re the one who brought this to my attention… Hmpfh. … Let’s work together on this,” she said, fidgeting just enough to matter.

As expected—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 4!!!!

—flashed by, along with the more normal message.

“Now that it’s been decided, let’s reexamine the first card. There must be some sort of hint there… Oh, and of course, I only intend to investigate this case in our free time… I … have something else I must do.”

He walked part of the way home with her, then split off to the Dojima house, to hopefully make dango with Nanako.

####  29 October 2011, Saturday

Tsuna cringed when he saw the results of the decorating for the group date café. There were strings hanging from the ceiling with a series of red and pink hearts attached to them. The tables were covered in cheap paper tablecloths in red or pink, and each table had a small arrangement of pink flowers. There were also swags of paper chains with paper flowers attached to them outlining the door, and a set of pink curtains had been hung.

It all kind of reminded him of Madam Puddifoot’s, actually.

Yukiko was at one of the doors, awkwardly hawking the room, not that it made much of a difference. The only people inside were members of the class.

“I think we need some shills to drum up interest,” Male Rep said.

“Shills…?” Yosuke said. “Uh, who?”

“Who else is here besides us?” Male Rep pointed out … pointedly.

“Isn’t that kind of sad?”

“Do we have a choice? We need customers to get the ball rolling. If there aren’t many people passing by, we have to get the attention of the ones who are by any means necessary.”

“…But there’s only five of us here,” Yosuke said.

Kanji chose that moment to stop by. “Yo, how’s it going? I came to see what was … up?”

“Perfect timing!” Chie said.

“But now we’ve got four guys and two girls,” Yosuke objected.

Male Rep shrugged. “Eh, you guys are cross-dressing tomorrow anyway. One of you can sit on the girls’ side.”

As Yosuke was having another meltdown, Tsuna grabbed a “boy” seat, and Kanji sat down quickly beside him. 

Male Rep took the other male spot. “There you go, Yosuke-kun. You’ll be the girl.”

“A-Are you serious…?”

“Well, let’s get started,” Male Rep said. “…Uh, you guys can start now. …Will _someone_ please start?”

“Actually, what the hell is this?” Kanji asked.

“A mock group date,” Yosuke said flatly, then thought better of it. “I-I mean… We’re on a group date!” he said, changing his voice for the last part in an attempt to sound girly, then “giggled”.

Chie scowled at him. “You don’t have to talk like a girl…”

“S-So, what are your hobbies…?”

“Man, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Yosuke complained.

Chie rolled her eyes. “I like, uh, martial arts in general. M-Mainly watching them…” She laughed nervously. “Yikes, this is really embarrassing…”

“M-My hobby is, um, learning how to cook?” Yukiko said.

“Okay,” Chie said, “then we’ll ask you a question next!” then muttered, “Not that Yosuke-kun bothered to answer.”

“What type of girls do you like?” Yukiko asked.

“Whoa, getting right to the point,” Yosuke said.

“I guess … cute girls?” Male Rep said. “Man, this is lame…”

“Oh, now it dawns on you? Your turn, Tsuna-kun. What type of girls do you like?” Yosuke asked.

Tsuna snorted in amusement. “None?”

“Y-Your turn, Tatsumi-kun,” Chie said to move things along.

“Uh, well, I… I-I guess someone who’s kind of mysterious, and looks strong but’s actually kinda…”

“Any of us you like, Yosuke-kun?” he trolled.

“Well, you guys are all wonderful… But I think you’d be the most reliable, Tsuna-kun. I-I mean—you idiot!” he said, flailing his arms. “Don’t make me play along!”

Chie heaved a sigh and looked around miserably.

The door slid open and Rise entered with, “Senpai, how’re you doi—uh…” She laughed nervously. “W-Well, seeya!” she said as she fled.

“Mark it,” Yosuke said. “The group date café is officially a failure.”

After giving it up for dead, they bailed on the room entirely and walked around to see the other, hopefully more successful, offerings. For some peculiar reason there was a fortune teller booth set up, and the fortune teller happened to be a rather unique, long-nosed individual.

“Right, I am outta here,” he muttered, wondering if he should have just bailed on the group date café entirely, as his obviously more intelligent family had.

####  30 October 2011, Sunday

He refused to go anywhere near the classroom because he didn’t want to get into it with Chie and Yukiko about making him “pretty”. Instead he found a reasonably quiet spot backstage in the gym and temporarily anchored a Bounding Box with the confusion properties set pretty high, then stepped _Between_ to the Rokudo house.

“All right. You guys need to make me pretty.”

Daemon snorted and slung an arm around his shoulder. “You’re not mad, are you?”

“Of course not, brother. But don’t think I won’t get you back for this.”

He changed into one of the yukata he had in storage after Sin did his makeup. All those years of cosplay really paid off. Even Tsuna had to admit he looked halfway decent as a girl. “The hair, though…”

“Yes,” Sin said.

“Don’t worry, darling,” Mukuro, “I’ll handle it.” And indeed he did, using illusion to lengthen Tsuna’s hair and put it up in roller buns, with a blunt fringe. Two longer pieces framed his face.

“Eh, it works,” he said, checking his appearance in the mirror. “Right, time to go participate in this farce.” He stepped _Between_ to his Bounding Box (as did Mukuro, Hayato, and Sin) and checked around to make sure no one was in place to see them just appear, then dropped it.

His family slipped away to be part of the audience and Tsuna slipped his Personal Bounding Box ring on just to keep people from realizing who he was until it was time. He was joined a short time later by the other victims.

The MC, a rather strange man with a purple afro, strode to center stage and said, “Ladies and gentlemen! We now begin the second day of the Culture Festival with the ever-popular ‘Miss’ Yasogami Pageant! Let’s get right down to it and introduce our first contestant! She’s a runaway express train who’s Inaba born and bred, and can kill with both her fists and her looks! Presenting Kanji-chan of Class 1-3!”

Kanji stomped out done up as a somewhat credible Marilyn Monroe (though whoever had done the blush needed more lessons) circa 1955 from _The Seven Year Itch_ and said, “ ’Sup!” They had even managed to find a pair of heels to fit him.

“Gyaaaaah! Ewww! That’s so creepy!” a female Cardboard Cutout whined.

“This is wrong on every level,” a male Cardboard Cutout added.

“Now, don’t rip me apart for asking,” Afro MC said, “but what would you say is your best feature?”

“…My eyes?”

“Whoa!” Afro MC said. “A conventional answer from this all-too-unconventional beauty! After such a strong start, I don’t know how much of a chance the others have, but here’s our second contestant! An eloquent heiress of the noble Junes, she’s pure disappointment from the moment she opens her mouth! Presenting Yosuke-chan from Class 2-2!”

Yosuke awkwardly walked out in a girl’s sailor fuku (the skirt was alarmingly short), with part of his hair pulled back into a tiny tail banded with an elastic with red spheres on it. His blush was also a travesty. “H-Hi!” he said in extreme embarrassment.

“Holy crap! And here I thought Yosuke-senpai would be able to pull it off!”

“Dude, it’s terrifying… I can just imagine someone like him sitting across from me on a train!”

“Now, you look ready to win in that outfit,” Afro MC said. “Do you often dress like this?”

“Hell no!” Yosuke blurted out, then coughed. “Like, no way!”

“What is with this?” Kanji said. “We’re laughingstocks up here!”

“What did you think this was about?” Yosuke said sourly.

“I’ve already had about enough of this, but there’s still more to come!” Afro MC said. “Up next, our third contestant! She has the mildly bitter tang of the city—”

‘Why does everyone keep thinking I’m from the city!?’

“—and she’s made more girls cry than there are stars in the sky! Presenting our transfer student who’s been breaking hearts in Class 2-2, Tsuna-chan!”

Tsuna sauntered out calmly and came to a stop next to Yosuke, then bowed to the audience.

“Wait, what!?”

“Senpai!?”

“Are we sure that’s a dude?”

“Sounds like your entrance is causing quite a stir!” Afro MC said. “Did you sign yourself up?”

He shook his head. “No, a friend decided to play a prank on me.”

“Damn that Kashiwagi,” Yosuke muttered. “How dare she tear away our innocence like this! Now I’m scarred for life, damn it!”

“Our last contestant—”

‘Last? There wasn’t anyone else back there.’

“—is a random, unaffiliated entrant! Calling herself ‘King of the TV World’, she’s a cute, sexy little number! Give a warm welcome to Teddie-chan!”

Teddie, dressed like Alice from _Through the Looking Glass_ , skipped out to center front stage and posed, somehow making sparkles appear. “Gimme your hearts!” he cried.

“Huh!? That’s a boy!? He’s so cute!”

“I’d hit it…”

“We’ll just take a moment to collect the votes,” Afro MC said as Kashiwagi whipped through the crowd collecting them, and shortly thereafter he announced, “And the winner of this year’s ‘Miss’ Yasogami Pageant is—the random contestant who won everyone’s hearts, Teddie-chan!”

Teddie began doing a goofy victory dance.

“As our champion, Teddie-chan will receive a very special prize,” Afro MC continued. “Later this afternoon we will be hosting the Miss Yasogami Pageant, with actual beauties this time! Your reward is a position as an honorary judge in that pageant!”

“Whoohoo!” Teddie cried, still doing his little victory dance.

“A-An honorary judge…?” Yosuke said. “That’s one lame prize for what you gotta go through…”

“Well, then, Teddie-chan, how does it feel to have won the pageant and become a judge?”

Teddie hummed. “The long-awaited day has finally come! I decree that one of the judging criteria later this afternoon will be… Tadaaaa! A swimsuit competition!”

“Wh-What the hell!? Over my dead body!” Chie said.

Rise pouted. “Aww, I didn’t bring a swimsuit!”

“That … girl … needs to be disappeared,” Yukiko said darkly.

Kashiwagi chuckled throatily. “This is great! I love the direction this is going!”

Tsuna had time enough to “remove” his makeup and “hair”, but stayed in the yukata, because why not? He tuned out the introductions for Kashiwagi and Ohtani, only bothering to pay attention when it came to the forced entries.

“But that’s not all for the Culture Festival’s main event! There’s still more to come in the Miss Yasogami Pageant! The judging continues! Can you hear the crowd going wild! Now, for our next contestant, Satonaka Chie of Class 2-2! Come on out!”

“H-Hi…”

“Tell us a little bit about yourself?” Afro MC prompted.

“U-Um, I’m kind of shy and reserved… And my favorite food is … pudding.”

“That liar,” Yosuke said. “It’s steak!”

“Thank you very much!” Afro MC said. “Up next, another contestant from Class 2-2, Amagi Yukiko!”

“H-Hello… Um, my family runs the Amagi Inn. If you ever find yourself in the area, please give us a visit. Our hot springs are open to the public year-round, so whenever you’re in the mood to enjoy them, please drop by—”

“All right,” Afro MC said, interrupting her impromptu sales pitch, “that’ll do nicely! And last but not least, a very familiar face. Kujikawa Rise from Class 1-2!”

“Hi-hi!” Rise said perkily. “I haven’t been in town very long, but it’s a great place and I’m one-hundred percent thrilled to be here! So sorry that I’m not working as an idol right now! Risette’s gonna do her best, so I hope you all cheer for me!”

“The real Risette, ladies and gentlemen, in the flesh! Thank you very much! And with that, all five uniquely beautiful contestants are on stage! Now, let’s have our special judge, Teddie-kun, ask them some questions.”

Teddie cleared his throat. “I am Teddie, the honorary judge for this pageant. Please keep in mind that if you anger me, you will be at a disadvantage. Well, Chie-chan, do you have a boyfriend?”

“Wha—!?”

“Yukiko-chan, have you ever smooched anyone before?”

“Huh—!? S-Stop it!”

“Rise-chan, can I stay at your house?”

“What kind of a question is that…?”

“A-Anyway,” Afro MC said, “I have a surprise announcement for you all! Wait ’til you hear this! For the first time ever, this year’s pageant will feature a swimsuit competition! And it’s all thanks to Teddie-kun here! We’ll take a brief break while our contestants get changed and be back in just a few moments!”

Shortly thereafter they were all back on stage again, swimsuits a given (though Kashiwagi looked like she was trying much too hard—and against high school girls? How pathetic was that?) and Afro MC called for the votes to be gathered.

“Thanks for waiting, everyone. The results are in! Looking at the way the vote went… You guys in the audience had a hard time picking a favorite! Lots of different opinions, with every one of our contestants having their own enthusiastic supporters! The grand prize goes to—no one! It was a tie!”

Kashiwagi and Ohtani blubbered together in a moving display of nausea, while the other three booked it off stage.

“Oh, onii-san!”

Tsuna pivoted to see his cousin beaming at him. His uncle was standing there, too.

“Ah,” Dojima said. “Good thing we found you. I’ve got to make a business trip to the prefectural office, and I won’t be back until tomorrow. Shame it had to fall during your school’s Culture Festival. Nanako and I were both looking forward to it. Sorry to dump this on you, but could you show Nanako around?”

“Of course,” he said.

“Thanks. Then I’m gonna get going.”

“Have a safe trip,” Nanako said.

“Yeah. You have fun, too, Nanako.”

“Okay, Dad!” she said as his uncle hastened off.

Teddie wandered over, a somewhat smug smile on his face. “Hi, Nanako-chan! Can I join in?”

Tsuna nodded. “Sure.”

“Man, everything on this side is so fun,” Teddie said. “It’s all thanks to you for bringing people over to my side. Thank you, sensei.”

He took Nanako’s hand as a rank message flashed by and said, “What would you like to see first?”

####  31 October 2011, Monday

“These cards came from Shiroku Store,” Naoto said, looking at them. “When I talked with the owner, her description matched the one you gave. This ‘Phantom Thief’ purchased these cards mere days before handing one to you… If that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine that any elaborate process was performed on the card. Although… I do detect the faint, lingering scent of citrus. A very weak cologne, perhaps…” She sighed. “What should I do…?”

“Citrus? Isn’t there a way to write—”

“Of course! Could it be…? …Your house is closer. Let’s go test it out now!”

They removed themselves to the Dojima house so Naoto could heat the scented card over a stove burner. Letters appeared after a bit.

“It really was invisible ink… The citrus juices staining the paper burn first, making it legible. A grown man, employing such childish tricks!? And this sentence here… ‘Eating letters with a red face.’ This is…”

“A mailbox?”

“Ah, yes, I see. You’re good with riddles,” she said, smiling. “A mailbox… There was one in the shopping district. Let’s go!”

There was one outside Daidara’s and Naoto checked it over carefully, eventually securing something small that had been taped to the underside.

“This is… Grampa had this? Why did he keep it…?”

“What is it?” he asked curiously.

“Um…” Naoto had a look in her face he couldn’t quite interpret. “I made this … when I was a child. It’s a … detective badge. It has no real function, though.” She shoved it in her pocket. “A petty challenge… And the prize was this stolen detective badge…

“I have an idea who the Phantom Thief might be, but none as to his motive… This is an important case to me. And yet … without you, I’d never have cracked it. Rather, I wouldn’t have bothered… Thank you, Tsuna-san,” she said, smiling openly.

The now usual—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 5!!!!!

—flashed by as she continued, “Normally, I’d think this isn’t the time to play along with such games, but… I, er… I think I’ll let this one play out. And, um, if possible…”

“Let’s do it,” he said. He was curious to see where it would go, and if his guess was correct that it was her grandfather behind it all.

“Y-Yes, let’s,” she said, blushing for some reason.

“It’s cold today,” Nanako said.

“Now for our next story… Kozai-san of the Environmental Concern Society visited a local elementary school to investigate the effects of the fog. Thick fog has appeared frequently in Inaba over the past few years, and the cause of it has yet to be determined. There’s been much conjecture on the origin of this fog, and some are concerned about its effects on the human body.

“Town officials believe it highly unlikely that the fog could be harmful. One official suggested that the concern is largely tied to public anxiety in response to the recent murders. One hearing about the phenomenon, Kozai-san visited the local elementary school to investigate its effects. He interviewed the children playing happily in the fog about their health and any anxieties they were facing.”

“Oh, that man came to my school,” Nanako said, pointing at the screen.

“Upon completing the investigation, Kozai-san issued a statement.

“ ‘In this day and age, one must stay aware of even slight changes in the environment and react politically. Today, I talked with a young student who spoke her own mind, free from the influence of those around her. It was an attitude and an example that we as adults can learn from. Our primary concern should always be to protect these children’s futures.’

“On that note, Kozai-san ended his statement. The assembled parents applauded, but some raised concerns that it was a show to attract voters in the next election.”

Nanako sneezed, then said, “My head hurts…”

He looked at her more closely and saw that her face was red. He set the back of his hand against her forehead to check and realized she felt much too warm. “Hold on a moment,” he said, “I’ll be right back.” A quick trip to the first aid kit produced a thermometer and some fever-reducing medication, and a proper check of her temperature showed she was definitely running a fever.

He got some water so she could take the pills, then got her settled in bed.

“Hey, onii-san… Are you … going back home in spring? It’s going to be winter soon… If it snows, can we make a snowman…? We can play a lot… Let’s play all the time until spring…” She trailed off, closing her eyes, and apparently falling asleep.

He tiptoed out, but not without leaving a window on her in case she woke or her condition changed. He cleaned up downstairs and retreated to his room. ‘Dojima must have told her why I came here. Does she think my mother will ask that I come to Tokyo?’

####  01 November 2011, Tuesday

He stopped by the Velvet Room and gained the final rank with Margaret (fusing a Trumpeter with Mind Charge) and gained the option to fuse Isis, then went to the usual spot with Naoto because she had received another card.

“This was in my mailbox this morning,” she opened with. “The Phantom Thief knows where I live. …Which means he had other reasons for having you deliver the first card. Why you, though…?”

“Because I looked reliable.” He was only being a little facetious.

Naoto laughed. “I don’t think that’s the sort of metric the culprit would use… So, then, what do you think of the contents of this card? ‘When the banks close, the fruit tree grows. By the large seven at the third is the spot I chose.’ More cryptic this time. Well, I anticipated that.

“The first thing that comes to mind with ‘fruit tree’ is the original card. But the second sentence… ‘By the seven’, ‘at the third’… What do these numerical values mean…? ‘When the banks close, the fruit tree grows. By the large seven at the third is the spot I chose.’ ”

“Those numbers sound like clues.”

“The numbers themselves…?” She looked at the card more closely. “The seven and the third…” Naoto perked up. “Look at the third and seventh words. ‘Banks’ and ‘tree’. In other words, by the large tree at the banks is the spot I chose! Let’s search for the biggest tree at this river’s banks!”

Once they did find a likely candidate, Naoto spotted some freshly disturbed earth at its base, and she promptly dug it up. She recovered a digital watch that looked sightly large for a child’s wrist.

“I knew it… This watch brings back memories… This is pretty advanced, you know,” she said, showing it to him. “It’s one of the seven tools of the detective. It has an extremely strong backlight. You can use it to blind the enemy. …I modified it as a child. I’ve always loved this sort of thing, ever since childhood.

“I preferred robots and cars to dolls and teddy bears… I liked high places, so I had a secret base in the trees… I enjoyed that… Why…? Why couldn’t I have been born male…? It would have been much easier for me. I could have done what I wanted to with gusto. It’s funny, isn’t it…?”

“And who says you haven’t? Your gender doesn’t matter,” he said gently. “What matters is that you make the most of what you have, enjoy what you do, and don’t let sexism get in your way.”

“Huh…? Wh-What are you saying?” She looked quite flustered. “Really… It’s quite difficult to keep my composure when you’re around. I feel like I’m being lectured. Like I’m still a child,” she said as—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 6!!!!!!

—flashed by, still with sparkles and fireworks. “I-It seems I’ve been doing all the talking… Why don’t you tell me about yourself? What were you like as a child…? I wish I could have seen it.”

Tsuna laughed; she kind of reminded him of Lal Mirch at times. “I spent most of my time avoiding Hibari-san.”

“Hibari-san…?”

“He’s quite fierce,” he said with a smile. “He thinks it’s his job to protect the town, that it’s his territory. He hates it when people crowd, especially around him, and if anyone is doing something he doesn’t approve of? Well. His favorite saying is that he’s going to ‘bite you to death’. For him that means he gives you a monumental ass-kicking with his tonfa.”

“How does he get away with that…?”

“He went to the trouble of biting all the delinquents in town to death, then turned them into the Disciplinary Committee, with him as the leader. He’s quite the character. I think his father is a cop? Anyway, aside from that, I spent my time with my friends and learning how to cook.”

“From who?”

“Well…”

####  02 November 2011, Wednesday

Naoto flagged him during lunch and asked to meet with him after school. They went to the usual place and took seats at the covered table.

“To tell you the truth, I haven't been in contact with Grampa lately. I wanted to confirm the items I assume the Phantom Thief stole, but… Our secretary Yakushiji-san passed along a message, saying he went to visit an ailing friend in America. Since then, I haven’t been able to reach either Grampa or Yakushiji-san’s cell phone…

“…Well, there’s no point in worrying about them now. I’m sure they’re fine. On to business. I received a new challenge in the mail today. The card reads: ‘Jury to not rest, or rout for fable. Minus 40, Minus 4’. The sentence as written is gibberish. Is this part of the riddle…? And this… ‘Minus 40, Minus 4’… On its own, it means nothing. Perhaps the ‘minus’ part is important…”

He thought about it for a moment and said, “Subtract ‘40’ and ‘4’?”

“Subtract ‘40’…? A-ha!” Naoto’s eyes lit up. “Notice the unusual comma in the phrase. It corresponds to the two numbers. Subtract the letters in ‘forty’ from the first part, and the ones from ‘four’ from the second! What remains is: ‘ju n es, t able’… Junes, table! That’s it! Let’s go!”

“I knew it was here,” she said, having located something taped to the underside of one of the tables; it was a large ballpoint pen. “This is another of the seven detective tools I made. You can use it as a normal pen, but it also has a penlight and a miniature telescope. I thought I had lost this.

“I didn’t think Grampa still had it… Neither my Grampa nor myself can stand to throw things away… When this pen was still mine, I was just a child, dreaming of becoming a detective. But being a man or a woman…

“I never thought about it. The lack of peers to compare myself to might have contributed to that. I had no friends… I was quite the outsider then, too. But why is it that, compared to the time I spent utterly alone… I worry more now that I’m with you and the others? I feel that … I’m undergoing a change.”

It was rather painful to watch someone growing up before his very eyes, struggling so hard with it. The best he could say was, “Don’t be afraid of change.”

Naoto smiled weakly. “I see. I’m afraid, you say… I see… The need to change… And the desire to remain the same. They’re mixed together. …And it scares me.”

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 7!!!!!!!

“Tsuna-san… Have you ever felt like that before? …I want to hear about you.”

He could give her chapter and verse on that subject as it pertained to his original encounters with Reborn, but that wasn’t the kind of thing he could talk about. So… He launched into a highly-modified description of how he had felt when his mother got married and he was told he would be going to Inaba to live with his uncle.

####  03 November 2011, Thursday

Naoto flagged him down at the end of school and asked him to accompany her to the shopping district, due to additional information she had uncovered.

“I have learned that in recent days, a suspicious man has been spotted around the shopping district. He isn’t a local, and his appearance doesn’t mark him as a tourist or a shopper. I talked to the owner of Shiroku Store, and she said that she saw the man only a few hours ago.

“She confirmed it was the same man who bought the cards… If that’s true, then he’s likely looking for his next hiding place for one of the stolen items. We may be able to catch him in the act.”

“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” he said, wondering if Naoto had figured out what was going on.

“No detective worth his salt worries about that. …Very well. But in return, you mustn’t do anything dangerous either,” she said with a glare. “If my deductions are correct, there are two things remaining that the Phantom Thief has stolen. And if so, I’m quite certain that he’s going to hide that one. Perhaps he is… Anyway, where in this area could he hide something unnoticed…? I have an idea. Let’s go, senpai.”

She headed for the shrine. Immediately upon entering he saw Black Suit standing under the torii, his back to them.

“You’re…”

Black Suit whipped around and shoved his right hand inside his jacket. Having seen mafiosi do that move any number of times, Tsuna reacted near-automatically and interposed himself between Naoto and the man, but had the presence of mind not to use any of his usual tactics—yet. Black Suit pulled out a … knife?

“Tsuna-san!? Th-There’s no need for alarm! That knife is a toy!”

Black Suit dropped the knife and fled.

Naoto moved forward and picked the knife up. “This knife… I knew it. It’s another of the seven tools I made. This is a knife-shaped radio. As I said, it’s just a toy. But… Even so, what you did… What if the knife had been real!? You would’ve been in grave danger!”

She made a sound of acute frustration. “You’re always like that! I can’t imagine becoming a woman only to have a man protect me! And yet … you always… Why!?”

He gave her a disbelieving look. “Because we’re friends. Gender has nothing to do with it!”

“...I consider you a friend as well. So... Please don’t do these rash things any longer,” she said with a fierce glare. “I’m sorry for involving you in this. …We’ve almost reached the end. Just a little more, and it will be over... For some reason, the thought is not a cheering one… I’ve never had a case like this before.”

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 8!!!!!!!!

“I’m going home now. I have research to do… You needn’t worry about the Phantom Thief case any longer. I’ll explain later … once everything calms down.” For some reason she was smiling helplessly as she left.

####  04 November 2011, Friday

On the way to school they ran into Naoto. It was raining again. “The weather channel says it will rain all night,” she said.

“Yeah. We need to be watching tonight,” Sin said.

“We haven’t seen anyone on the news,” Mukuro said, “but I’m still rather dreading this.”

Naoto nodded, then looked at Tsuna. “Um… Do you have spare time today? Could I see you after class if you do?”

“Sure.” He could only assume that she had finally twigged to what was going on and that Black Suit would be there.

“Thank you. You see, there is someone I would like you to meet. I will meet you at the lockers after classes.”

They walked to the usual spot at the flood plain. Waiting there was Black Suit, who immediately said, “I am Yakushiji, secretary of the Shirogane estate. I humbly apologize for the other day.”

“I must also apologize,” Naoto said. “Though I may not have known, I involved you in this… It was an act put on by Grampa.”

“My master has been terribly saddened by Naoto-sama’s state of affairs lately,” Yakushiji explained. “Lacking acquaintances to confide in, she devotes every fiber of her being to work… My master wanted Naoto-sama to regain the joy she felt in days past. To regain the feelings when all that she wanted was to be a detective, regardless of her heritage or gender…”

Naoto looked embarrassed again.

“I involved you at my own discretion, believing you to be trustworthy. Please forgive me,” Black Suit said, then departed.

Naoto moved to the table to sit down, then showed him another card. “I received this from Yakushiji-san. It’s the final challenge. It says, ‘I did what you can’t stand to at a place you’d be fond of. But underneath, rather than inside.’ A place I’d be fond of…?”

“You mentioned you like high places the other day.”

“…You remembered?” She looked pleased. “The highest place around here is … the hill. Next, what ‘I can’t stand’ to do. There are several possibilities, but…”

“You also mentioned that you and your grandfather hate to throw things away.”

“That’s right! I mentioned that before…?” She looked pleased again, but also embarrassed. “Considering what’s at the hill, the most likely answer is the trash can. …I have an inkling of what might be there. Let’s go, senpai.”

‘I would hope she does, given that this has all been revealing the seven tools of a detective,’ he thought as they headed off.

“I forgot this thing even existed,” she said after retrieving something from the bottom of the trash can up at the overlook. “It’s the last of the seven tools, the Detective’s Pocketbook. …All the things I had forgotten about are packed in here… I think Grampa wanted to remind me of them. This childish game… He’s selfish indeed. Forcing me to recall all this now… I was trying so hard… Not to be underestimated, not to be condescended to…”

Naoto turned away and moved to take a seat at the covered table there, so he sat next to her.

“If I solved this town’s murder case, then everyone would accept me... They would acknowledge me as the 5th in the Shirogane lineage of detectives. …That’s what I told myself. I just wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be needed. That’s why I fretted and stood on my tiptoes … and focused only on solving the case… But the original reason I wanted to become a detective—it was because mysteries intrigued me… and I could help people by solving them. That’s all. I remember now…

“Tsuna-san, do you recall the time I faced myself in the TV world? It was my task to accept the self who yelled, ‘I want a reason for me to stay’,” she said, her voice and eyes thickening with tears. “But my ‘reason to stay’ was not solely to solve the crime… You … everyone … gave me a reason… You gave me a place to stay…”

Naoto attempted a smile, but it was watery. “I have to be an adult... I have to be a man... With that way of thinking, I was running from myself. I don’t need to look for something to change or something to accomplish… I only need … to have faith in myself.”

She got up and moved to stand in front of him, so Tsuna stood as well.

“I finally think I can accept myself. That I’m a woman… That I haven’t yet become the detective I wanted to be… I… I am a woman … and a detective… One who is seeking the truth with you and the others.”

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 9!!!!!!!!!

“I’m really glad I came to this town. It’s where you and I live … and all the others, too.”

“I’m glad, too,” he said as they started the walk back. “Maybe… Maybe you can keep those seven tools, on display, as a reminder of why you love being a detective, all else aside. But we will solve this, and it has nothing to do with what gender anyone is. It only has to do with seeking the truth, and finding it.”

Talk continued on in that vein as they descending the hill, and after they split he headed through the shopping district on his way home. The petrol station attendant commented as he neared, “I hear a lot of people saying that this town’s fog is harmful poison,” which caused him to pause.

“Pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? I feel very relaxed on rainy and foggy days… It seems the everyday noise just fades away. Don’t you think so, too?”

“Dad’s late…”

They were both surprised when the doorbell rang.

“Did he forget his keys?” Nanako wondered. She got up and ran to the door.

The only reason he wasn’t concerned was due to the Bounding Box he had anchored. It would keep away anyone who meant harm to the house or the people who lived there.

Nanako came back a moment later looking annoyed. “It was the deliveryman. He was asking where Takahashi-san’s house is,” she said, then immediately diverted to the phone when it rang. “Moshi moshi. Dojima residence. …Oh, hi, Dad! …Uh-huh. …All right. It’s okay, I know it’s your job. …Uh-huh. …Uh-huh. Onii-san’s with me, so… Okay, bye-bye.”

She hung up the phone and came back to the table. “Dad says he’s coming home tomorrow. But I’m not lonely… You’re here with me,” she said with a cheerful smile. “It’s cold today, too. Wanna bring out the kotatsu? Dad said we could pull it out if it got too cold. That’ll make it nice and warm!”

Shortly thereafter they had it removed from the closet and set up.

“Okay, I’m turning it on,” she announced, then said in dismay, “What…? It’s not coming on. Looks like it’s broken.”

“We can go buy a new one. Not tonight, though.”

“Yeah,” she said in disappointment, then perked back up. “At Junes?”

“Of course.”

Nanako cheered. “When you have some time, let’s go to Junes!”

When the time came he focused his attention on the TV. A silhouette appeared, but the image was so blurry and full of static he couldn’t even guess at the gender of the person shown.

Tsuna sighed and went to bed.


	15. λ21: 15: 05 November - 04 December 2011

## λ21  
15: 05 November - 04 December 2011

####  05 November 2011, Saturday

“I watched the Midnight Channel last night, as you suggested,” Naoto said once they were settled in at the Rokudo house. “To think a master of deduction and evidence would strain her eyes over an urban legend like this… And yet, I definitely saw someone.”

“All I could see was a bare silhouette,” Tsuna said. “Too much blur and static.”

“Same,” Ken said.

“I don’t recall anyone in town being featured lately,” Xeul said. “Did I miss someone?”

“I can’t think of anyone offhand,” Naoto said. “I suppose there was that politician who visited to quell the rumors about the fog. His statement was read on TV, but the chances of him being the one are slim. He returned immediately to the city after his inquiry.”

Teddie hummed thoughtfully.

“Hm? What is it?”

“From what I saw… Wasn’t the person on TV last night pretty small?”

“There was no frame of reference with how bad the image was,” Hayato said. “No way to tell their size.”

“We already know, but for the benefit of those who weren’t here earlier,” Daemon said, “Teddie already went in and didn’t sense anyone on that side.”

Teddie gave a firm nod.

“Well, we should certainly be concerned,” he said, “but with no one actually in there… All we can do is, again, wait. And be frustrated. And feel a sense of impending not-good.”

Daemon eyed him carefully, then looked away.

Even for him, Tsuna was having problems with what his intuition was trying to say. Sure, someone was going to be thrown in, but his general sense of unease was blotting out a more specific sense of who it might possibly be in the absence of obvious clues.

It was eleven when Dojima finally got home. Tsuna had been waiting up in anticipation of the Midnight Channel and heard the front door open, so he found a good spot to save his game and then got up and opened his door.

His uncle was there just shutting Nanako’s door. Dojima turned and offered him something. “This was in the mailbox. It’s for you, but…”

It was another letter, like the one from before. Addressed properly, but no return name or address. He took a quick glance at it— _if you dont stop this time someone close will be put in and killed_ —and started to tuck it away.

However, something in his expression must have caused suspicion—or given his uncle an excuse beyond theft from the postal service due to the lack of postage or postmarks—as Dojima snatched the letter out of his hand and read it himself. “Hey, what the hell is this!? Not often we get letters with no return address on them, after all. And I was right… Be straight with me,” he said fiercely. “You’re involved in the case, aren’t you? What are you up to?”

Tsuna remained silent. He already got the idea he was going to be hauled off to the station. There was no need to make his uncle think he was certifiable, too.

“So you’re not going to be honest with me. I’ve been treating you like family… That’s why I never questioned you on this.”

‘And here comes the hypocrisy!’

“But I see that was a mistake. I should’ve intervened much earlier because I care for you.”

‘Seriously? You have a fucked up way of showing it.’

“I _will_ have the truth from you today.”

“D-Dad…?” Nanako had clearly been woken from the noise and come to see what was going on.

Dojima spared a glance for his daughter, then focused back on him. “We’ll continue this somewhere else. But I’m not letting you leave until I’m convinced. This is for your own good. Got that?” As almost an afterthought he looked back at Nanako. “It’s all right. We’re not fighting. We’ll be right back, so don’t wait up. Okay?”

Nanako had enough sense to look scared, but nevertheless said, “Okay… I’ll be waiting.”

Dojima put in a call to Adachi, to meet him at the station, then escorted Tsuna to the car and into it. He drove them to the station in fuming silence. Tsuna was escorted to an interrogation room and pointed at a seat, but not before his phone was confiscated. A slight twinkle off to the side told him that one of his family members was, as always, on monitor duty.

“I’ll hold onto this,” Dojima said. “Now speak up. What have you gotten yourself into? What is this warning letter about? Why would you be sent something like this?”

Tsuna took a moment to examine the room, noticed at least one camera, and automatically assumed that even if they weren’t on now, they would be the moment he was left unattended. And if they were on, and there just wasn’t any indicator light showing so, he did not want anything he said to be taped.

So he said nothing, presenting a blank look to his uncle.

“…I thought you’d finally tell me what’s really going on here… Enough! That’s enough. …I guess half a year wasn’t long enough for you to trust me like your—but I hoped you’d open up to me a little.” Dojima sighed. “It’s a shame. …Stay here for the night,” he said roughly, then exited.

‘In a room with no toilet and a camera. Awesome.’

“Whoa… Sorry!” Adachi said, looking flustered. “He probably freaked out once he saw that letter and thought he had to protect you. Like a father would do for his son. I think he cares for you a lot. So yeah, don’t take it so hard! Plus, you know, you’ll be safe in here.”

Adachi’s expression reverted back to its usual goofy state. “Y’know, Dojima-san’s started looking into the people involved with the first case again. Guess he wasn’t satisfied with the way the case wrapped up after all. That’s why he’s even more sensitive about this and that—”

Adachi broke off to laugh nervously. “I better shut up now before I get chewed out again. All right, I’ll be just outside. If you need anything, let me know.” He, too, exited the room, but that time the distinct sound of the door being locked sounded.

Tsuna glanced around again, his gaze lingering on the camera for a second, then looked down when a for-your-eyes-only window opened on the floor at his feet. Words were projected onto the glass, obscuring Daemon’s face: Got the phone back already, so that’s sorted. Called Blue Hat, let her know what happened.

Tsuna nodded slightly and projected his response: Right. It’s almost midnight and it’s raining. One of you going to come along to ‘persuade’ Dojima that he’s overreacting?

Daemon nodded. Yes, we sent Mukuro, Hayato, and Sin, since those are the people Dojima is aware of. They can claim they were up late and saw you being driven past in the wrong direction by Dojima as they were walking home. You know Mukuro has a silver tongue when he wants to.

Tsuna’s mouth twitched in an almost smile. If shit goes completely south, I can always blind that camera and step out. I’d have to hide, though, if anyone came looking for me at your place.

Daemon nodded again. That’s a given. Well, sit tight for a bit. Your gallant knights are en route to rescue you.

####  06 November 2011, Sunday

Tsuna was distracted by the Midnight Channel flicking on. It was clearer that time, but not clear. The figure was small, and had … twin tails… His eyes widened in alarm. He heard a split second of the sound of a phone ringing before the window and the image winked out.

‘Fuck my life,’ he thought, then looked down again as words formed on the floor. Sorry, can’t afford to have any sound transfer with that camera in the room and Adachi outside. The others are almost there, and Blue Hat called to say she’s on her way to your house, to check up on Nanako. But with your Bounding Box in place, we weren’t exactly worried, not that we could explain that to her.

His head dipped slightly in a nod. Yeah, that’s the only reason I haven’t broken out of here.

Daemon’s words blurred and fuzzed, then reformed: While on the phone with me, Blue Hat said: Nanako-chan does fit the pattern. She wasn’t seen, but she was heard. Do you remember the politician who visited the elementary school, and made the news several times? In those interviews he always quoted a particular student he spoke with. The child became well-known while remaining anonymous. That girl was Nanako-chan. A reporter who took interest in this released her photo and interview using her real name in today’s evening paper. But even before that… This is a small, rural town. Her identity must have been circulating for quite some time.

That … had never even occurred to him as a possibility. This is a bit humbling. Not only being outthought at times by someone so young, but also with how blinded we’ve been. Not our fault, I know, but it’s still… If nothing else, it serves to remind us we’re not god-level in abilities.

Just about the time he heard a commotion outside, he also saw: Fuck. We’re in trouble.

“Hey!? What do you think you’re doing!” he heard Dojima say.

“Nanako-chan’s missing!” Mukuro practically shouted.

Tsuna stood up in alarm and pounded on the door.

“Shirogane’s on the phone, from your house,” he heard.

“Shirogane!? You there? What the hell’s going on?”

The interrogation room door opened at that point and Tsuna could see Mukuro, Hayato, and Sin standing there, staring holes in his uncle. Adachi, well… He just looked flustered, as usual.

Mukuro’s cell was on speakerphone, because they could all hear it when she said, “I’m at your house right now. The front door’s open and there’s no one inside. I’m afraid that Nanako-chan has been kidnapped by our serial killer. Surely you must’ve known, Dojima-san!? The case isn’t over yet!”

The phone got handed back to Mukuro and Dojima pulled out his own and made a call, also on speakerphone. “This is the KJ Customer Service Center. The number you have dialed is unavailable right now. The phone may be switched off or outside our coverage area.”

“Nanako,” Dojima said helplessly as he ended the call. “Is this true? Has Nanako really been…?”

Tsuna shook his head. “We need to hurry.”

“Why…? Why Nanako…?” Dojima initiated another call.

“Wh-What are you doing?” Adachi asked.

“Traffic Division, Ohta speaking,” issued from the phone’s speaker.

“There’s been a kidnapping!” Dojima barked. “Get your men on it immediately! Start with checkpoints along the highway!”

“Checkpoints?” came the confused response. “Um, could you explain the situation a little mo—”

“Quit griping and get to it! The victim’s an eight year old girl—my daughter!”

“Your daughter? Wait, what about the scene? What makes you think this is a kidnapping?”

“Look, this could be connected to that multiple murder case! Get on it!”

“Connected…? But we caught the killer. How long has she been missing? Have you received any notices or ransom letters?”

“Would you stop wasting time!?” Dojima demanded.

“Um, a-all right… I’ll try contacting the other departments…”

Dojima hung up with a scowl.

“Even if you tell ’em this is connected to the murders, we can’t prove it,” Adachi said. “And everyone on the force thinks this case is over and done with… Wh-Where are you going!?”

“I’m gonna go look for my daughter!” Dojima said, looking at Adachi as if he was mental. “If this is connected to that murder case, the top brass won’t accept the facts until it’s too late. I’m not gonna wait for those clowns!”

“But do you even have any ideas or leads on who took her!?” Adachi protested. “If they used a car, there’s no way—”

“Shut up! That’s why I’m hurrying!” Dojima said, then hastened off.

Adachi flailed. “What am I gonna do? Dojima-san’s run off half-cocked…”

“We can go look for her, too,” Hayato said. “So let Tsuna go, and we can get on with it!”

“Huh?” Adachi scratched the back of his head. “You know I can’t—”

Naoto and Teddie raced in and tried to get into the room.

“Whoa, hey! If I let all you guys in, then I’m really in trouble! Besides, we don’t even know if this thing’s—I know how you feel, but if you don’t tell me what’s going on, there’s really nothing I can do.”

“Ah,” Naoto said, “so you agree to release him once we explain the situation? Very well, then.”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant…”

“In any case,” Naoto pressed on, “if we run out blindly, we’ll have no idea where to begin. Let’s take a moment to sort out the situation. Perhaps this will help Adachi-san understand, as well. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a kidnapping by the same culprit who was behind the others. Now, consider that the front door at Dojima-san’s was open. I examined it, and found no trace that entry had been forced.”

“So she opened the door herself,” he said.

“Precisely. The culprit didn’t sneak in. He came boldly up to the front door and pressed the doorbell.”

“So the killer is someone Nana-chan knows?” Teddie asked.

“Senpai, do you have any insight into this possibility?”

“She was probably expecting it to be me or my uncle. We left so abruptly that I didn’t have a chance to get my key. But…”

Sin hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t think we can limit ourselves to people Nanako-chan knows.”

“I agree. Then let us change our perspective slightly. We know for certain that the culprit must have access to a large-screen TV.”

“Huh…? TV? What?” Adachi said.

Naoto seemed to ignore him and continued, “Each victim was taken at a different scene, yet was kidnapped without apparent difficulty. I would go so far as to say it took place where they were living.”

It was interesting watching her mind at work. Samsara was so used to being able to brute force their way to information, with very few rare exceptions, that witnessing someone deduct their way through things was kind of fascinating.

“Therefore, it’s extremely likely the culprit is using a vehicle. Given the efficiency of the culprit’s methods, I would assume a vehicle larger than a sedan.”

“I think we can rule out the possibility that no one happened to see the vehicle,” Sin said. “So we’re looking for one that no one would normally notice.”

“A delivery truck,” he said, eyes hardening. “Just last evening the doorbell rang. Nanako-chan went to see who it was. It was the delivery guy, asking for directions. I didn’t think anything of it.”

“No one looks twice at a delivery truck, no matter where it’s parked.”

“And if it were a local company,” Naoto said, “it’d be the same deliveryman every time, so he’s not a ‘stranger’ to Nanako-chan. She must have received packages from him during the times she was home alone, meaning we wouldn’t know his face. Adachi-san! Is there anyone who fits this profile!?”

Adachi scratched the back of his head and started rifling through a folder. “A profile formed by a bunch of kids talking it over…? Let’s see… A delivery company, huh? I dunno, take it from a detective, I think this is gonna be a lot more difficult than—hey! Maybe you’re not too far off base… Dojima-san put this stuff together to reinvestigate the first case—the murder of that announcer—and there’s a deliveryman mentioned right here… I better go tell Dojima-san!”

“After resigning from his last job, he took up the family delivery business,” Naoto read out loud, having nosed over to see what Adachi was speaking of. “Before that, he was a council secretary. Namatame Taro!”

“The enka singer’s husband.”

“The address is… It’s not far from here.”

Adachi sighed, shut the folder, and locked it in a drawer. “If there’s been a break in the case, I’d better hurry to the scene. I’ll just have to hope nothing happens here while I’m gone… I didn’t see anything.” He muttered the last bit as he headed out.

Still mindful of the camera(s), Tsuna quirked a brow and nodded after Adachi had a chance to get at least some distance away, then led them out of the station.

Naoto’s phone rang and she picked up. “Yes? …I see. … Yes, we’re on our way.” She hung up and said, “The others have spotted smoke. Looks like an accident. It might be involved. Let’s go!”

When they arrived at the scene it was to see two stopped vehicles, Dojima’s SUV and a delivery truck. His uncle was face-first flat on the pavement and Adachi was just saying, “D-Dojima-san! A-Are you all right!?”

“Wh-Where’s Nanako…?”

Naoto got back on her phone again. “Hello? We need an ambulance, quickly. There’s been an accident. One adult male is injured…”

“That’s right, I should call backup, too!” Adachi said sheepishly. “We gotta find Namatame!”

“Nanako… Where’s Nanako…?”

“Shit,” he muttered. “What happened, how did you end up like this?”

“…was on my way to Namatame’s house … when I saw him … drive past me… I… I gave chase … and he … damn it… Where’s Nanako…? And Namatame…? Find them… Please!”

Samsara all turned toward the delivery truck. “You think?”

“Wait, you can’t!” Adachi said, buying a clue for once. “We need to preserve the scene!”

Naoto stepped in, having completed her call. “Then allow me. If it rains again while we wait, the information we need will be lost regardless.” She headed over and opened the truck’s back doors.

Inside was a huge flat-screen television, but also something a lot smaller. Naoto hummed and held it up. “A diary from the driver’s seat, most likely kept by Namatame himself. It says: ‘I learned of the existence of a new world. Thus, I must save people.’ ”

“ ‘Save’? How the hell is killing people saving them?”

Naoto inhaled sharply. “This… It’s a list of the victims’ home addresses! Yamano Mayumi, Konishi Saki, Amagi Yukiko, Tatsumi Kanji, Kujikawa Rise… Even the victims who survived and were never released to the public are written here. I note that Morooka Kinshiro is absent from the list.”

“Wow,” Adachi said wonderingly. “Then that settles it.”

Naoto spared him a quick look, then continued, “The last date is today’s. ‘I can’t believe such a small child appeared on it. I must save this child, no matter what. I managed to take her to safety. The police have been active lately… This will probably be the last time I write in this diary. I’ve done everything I can…’

“So he’d use the same trick on all the victims. He’d ring the bell, as if he was making a normal delivery, then…”

Just then an ambulance pulled up and paramedics rushed out to see to Dojima.

Tsuna fidgeted in his seat in his uncle’s private hospital room. The only reason he hadn’t already flung himself into a TV was because he knew they could save his cousin. It didn’t make the waiting any easier. He was also deeply upset that Namatame had somehow gotten past the protection he had on the house. How could that be possible?

“You guys…”

He looked up to see that Dojima was awake.

“Are you all right?” Naoto asked.

“I must look like hell right now…”

‘Because that’s so fucking important,’ he thought in annoyance as he stood.

“Nanako… She’s … my reason for living… If I lose her … I might as well be dead… She must be so scared right now… Waiting for someone to save her… And here I am—” Dojima broke off coughing. “When she needs me the most … I’m helpless… What kind of a father am I…? I can’t even protect my own daughter!”

“Dojima-san…”

“If anything happens to Nanako… I’ll make Namatame pay! You can save Nanako, right…? Please… Save her for me! You’re the only ones I can turn to right now… Please…”

“We’ll do everything we can,” he said.

“We will rescue Nanako-chan at any cost,” Naoto said, but with a bit more feeling to it. “It may take some time, but you must put your faith in us and wait for us to return with her. Now get some rest, Dojima-san.”

Once they were outside the hospital and safely away from the hearing of anyone Tsuna said, “Tomorrow we focus on Nanako-chan. We don’t know where Namatame went and he can wait. Hopefully the police will get him since his truck was abandoned.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Naoto said. “Saving Nanako-chan is something only we can do.”

As murmurs of agreement sounded a rank message flashed by. They walked Naoto home before retreating to the Rokudo house, though Tsuna did briefly step over there to close and lock the front door.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “The Bounding Box should have prevented this. Does it have to do with him saying in that journal that he was ‘saving’ people? Is that why it didn’t stop him? He didn’t intend her harm? I just don’t get it. It should have worked.”

Sin enfolded him in a hug. “I don’t get it, either. Right now, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow, once Shirogane gets here, we can go in and save her. We’ll worry about Namatame after. You want Chikusa to help you sleep?”

He shook his head. “No… Just… Let’s go to bed. Having you right there will help.”

The expected doorbell came, right about eight o’clock, and Naoto was let in. Tsuna was just finishing up making bentos for the trip inside. After nodding at everyone she said, “Are we ready to proceed?”

“Yeah,” he said, putting the bentos into a bag. Another downside to having Naoto along was being unable to obviously use their storage. “Let’s plow.”

Things were weird on the other side.

“Look at this fog,” Ken said. “It’s way worse than normal.”

“You think maybe it has something to do with the fuss about the fog in the real world?” Chikusa said.

“Something’s weird in here… I think all the commotion in town has been affecting this world, too,” Teddie said, then started sniffing. “Got it! Follow me!” Teddie skittered off squeakily and led them to a stone-walled place with columns. There were rainbows and multi-coloured flowers and trees, with floating bits of earth.

“It’s like some storybook version of heaven,” Hayato said. “Maybe because of her mother.”

Inside was … blue skies and fluffy clouds and ornate walkways, with floating obelisks with gold filigree bases. The name he could see for the place was Heaven, Paradise, followed by a number. It was a beautiful place, which said something about Nanako, but…

It was on the fourth floor that they were able to hear Nanako’s voice.

“Mom… Mom… Where are you…? Why did you disappear…? Why did you leave me…? No… Come back…”

Tsuna’s heart broke a little hearing it.

“But I’m not lonely… I have Dad with me. I know he’s always late coming home … and he never plays with me because he’s so busy… He can’t cook or do laundry, either… He tries to be nice, though he is a little scary sometimes… But I love him… Onii-san is with me now, too… So I’m not alone… I’m not lonely…”

“…A child, telling herself she’s not lonely so she doesn’t fall apart,” Ken said roughly.

Teddie stiffened.

“What is it?” Daemon asked.

“Something’s not right… There’s someone here besides Nanako-chan. It was faint at first, so I couldn’t tell for sure. But there’s definitely another person here. And whoever this is… Their power’s getting stronger.”

“Could it be Namatame?” Hayato asked. “Did he duck in here after being cornered?”

“Perhaps so,” Naoto said. “It seemed as if he was particularly determined to kidnap Nanako-chan.”

Tsuna frowned. “If he’s the _real_ culprit, he must know the dangers of this place. If he honestly thinks that throwing people in saves their lives, I could see why he’d chance it.”

“I don’t know,” Naoto said slowly. “But if it is him, he may have entered from a TV near the site of the accident. Perhaps even the TV in his truck. Either way, Nanako-chan is in grave danger. Let’s keep going!”

The next floor up came another voice.

“N-No… That’s not it… I just wanted to live peacefully, that’s it…”

Teddie growled. “Nana-chan’s presence is being drowned out! Please answer us, Nana-chan! Don’t worry! We’re on our way to rescue you right now!”

The next floor up they heard, “This place is nice… It’s so quiet… I wish I could have lived here… Together with…”

“Yamano, presumably,” he said.

On the seventh floor, where the sky had turned the pink of an encroaching sunset, they heard the man again, saying, “I… I discovered the new world… I must save people… Yes, only I can…”

“The voice is getting closer!” Teddie said.

Also on that floor they found a mid-boss. One set of doors, when they approached, prompted his voice again. “Turn back! Stop getting in my way!”

Beyond them was a bizarre black cross accented with silver and gold, with a set of gold scales hanging from two concentric circles held together with spokes.

“Why are you getting in my way!? I’m… I’m going to save this girl!”

The mid-boss, which showed as World Balance on his overlay, was a complete pushover for them. He noticed during that battle that the shadows cast by everyone were like rainbows.

On the eighth floor they heard him again. “I won’t hand over this girl… No matter what… This time … for sure…”

“Why is he saying that?” Xeul said. “Does he sense us coming—or someone—and think we’re here to kill her?”

Tsuna shook his head. “Either way, given what he’s saying, we have to be prepared to fight him.”

The next floor they heard Nanako’s voice again. “I’m scared… Where are you … Mom…? Dad… Save me…”

It was also getting rather foggy.

On the tenth floor was simply a grassy circle of land bisected by a grandiose set of doors. Beyond them was a long walkway over an endless sky, leading to another circular piece of land. Columns ringed it, with angel statues atop each, and at the center, up a flight of stairs, was Namatame. He had Nanako held tightly to him, his arm wrapped around her neck.

“Onii-san!” she cried out.

“Y-You mustn’t go!” Namatame said.

“Let go of Nanako,” he said.

“I’m going to save this girl…”

“Namatame Taro… It’s definitely him!” Naoto said. “Then he did come in here…”

“…You’re one of the ones I saved,” Namatame said. “Don’t worry… I’ll save this girl, too…”

Tsuna frowned as Daemon said, “Let go of the girl.”

Namatame responded by holding her tighter. “D-Don’t come near me…”

“We can’t predict his behavior,” Naoto said. “We have to keep him talking. If we can discern his intentions, perhaps we can somehow deal with him.”

“Why are you doing this?” he asked.

“To save them…”

“What is the Midnight Channel?”

“People needing to be saved appear… That’s why I put them in the TV…”

“Let—”

“No, hang on,” Naoto interrupted. “You put the people you saw on the Midnight Channel into this world. Is that correct?”

“They all … want to be saved…”

“Did I ask you to save me?” Naoto asked.

“If I hadn’t put you in the TV, how would you have ended up…?”

“But I nearly died,” she pointed out.

“Yes… Exactly…”

“Why did you target local residents who became known through the media? Why do these people appear on the Midnight Channel?”

“On rainy nights … on TV … they signal me … to save them…”

“And yet your actions nearly led to the deaths of at least four people,” he said. “Your idea of saving people is to murder them?”

“Murder…? No, I’m saving them…”

“All you’ve been doing is throwing people in here to be killed,” Ken said.

Namatame chuckled. “If you want to think that, go ahead… I know … you chased us all the way here … to kill…” He chuckled again, making Tsuna think he was losing or had lost his damn mind. “Well, too bad… I’m … gonna save her…”

“You’re hurting her!”

“Shut the hell up!” Namatame shouted, then became surrounded by that blue haze.

“Fuck me, his Shadow is acting up,” he said lowly.

“What a wonderful world. An unknown, unreachable place … filled with pleasant fog… I’m a savior… It’s filthy over there… So many evildoers… That’s why I’m going to save them… I’m a savior… A righteous hero…”

Nanako wheezed. “Onii-san… I can’t … breathe…”

For once their flames and abilities came in handy. Naoto was in no position to see clearly, thankfully, how Daemon used his special ability to briefly take control of Namatame’s body, long enough for the others to rush the man and get Nanako away from him.

“Give … her back… I’m… I’m going … to save herrrrrrrr!”

And then shit got real. A noxious cloud of red and black gathered around Namatame and shot through him multiple times. Whatever it was it looked painful. He floated up into the air and started to transform, parts of his body bulging out like some out of control cancerous growth.

“What’s happening to him!?” Naoto shouted over the sudden wind and the sound of his pained cries.

“If we don’t do something, this could be bad,” Teddie said. “His powers are attracting more and more Shadows to him!”

“Look at him. He’s merging with the Shadows.”

The end result was an emaciated figure with a massive head, clothed in a flowing white garment, which had three red symbols down the front: a heart, a rotated infinity sign, and a peace sign. Tiny red wings fluttered from his shoulders, and an enormous red “halo” of sorts spun quietly. The sick thing was, the halo looked like it was part of his head, and his skin was horizontal stripes of red and black.

“I… I’m going to save her! Don’t interfere!”

“How solid is his grasp on reality?” Naoto asked.

“I… I’m…!”

Kunino-sagiri was at first … normal … in terms of battles, being a boss notwithstanding. Given that they were all wearing Omnipotent Orbs, he couldn’t hit them with anything. But then he pulled a new trick; he took control of Hayato. Hayato was controlled into using physical attacks, which were automatically blocked, and it only lasted for three rounds.

Then he took control of Hayato, Daemon, and Chikusa, with much the same results. Tsuna figured he was sagging hard when he devolved into using Unerring Justice every round, which was an Almighty attack, something they were not protected against. But considering they had three healers, only one of whom was front-line, it wasn’t much of a bother.

In the end he went down fairly easily and reverted back to human form.

“D-Damn it… Why…?”

Tsuna ignored him and went to check on Nanako, who had been kept out of the way by Xeul and Naoto. “She looks like she’s in pain, why? Let’s get her out of here.”

“…We should take _him_ with us, as well,” Naoto said.

“Yeah, he needs to be in police custody. Whether he intended to kill people or not, he still kidnapped a bunch of innocent people,” Tsuna said. “Let’s go.”

Once back at the Rokudo house an ambulance was called, along with the police. Namatame was taken into custody, and they all ended up at the hospital. Teddie was flipping out over the girl’s state; she had yet to wake up.

“A deliveryman named Namatame… The possibility of Nanako-chan being targeted,” Naoto said quietly. “If only I’d been more thorough in putting the facts together! Then Nanako-chan wouldn’t have had to go through this. Why did I waste time listening to what Namatame had to say!? If I hadn’t tried to engage him in conversation, and we’d rescued Nanako-chan immediately… This wouldn’t have happened!”

“We are not playing the blame game,” he said firmly.

“But… I still… Sorry… You’re right,” she said.

“I’ll come see Nana-chan every day so she’ll get better faster!” Teddie promised.

“Huh?” Tsuna looked back to see Adachi. “You guys still here?”

“Adachi-san,” Naoto said. “Did they find anything out?”

“Uh… Dojima-san’s speaking with the doctor now, but they can’t say anything definite until they run some tests on her… Not just Nanako-chan, but the perp, too… Who knows when we’ll be able to hear his story? Well, it’s getting late, so hurry home. The last thing we need is for you guys to collapse, too.”

And aside from leaving spies or a window, there really wasn’t much they _could_ do.

As they were leaving Teddie said, “Nana-chan… She’ll get better, right?”

“Yes, she will.”

“Yeah… I think so, too… Let’s all have fun with Nana-chan when she comes back!” Teddie said as a rank message flashed by. “Thanks… I almost forgot how to keep a happy face. But with that out of the way, I’m feeling all hungry…”

They all returned to the Rokudo house after seeing Naoto home. Tsuna didn’t see the point in sleeping at the Dojima house, alone, when he could be with his family.

“Do you want to talk this over?” Daemon asked.

He shook his head. “I want to mull things over first. For the moment it’s enough that Nanako-chan is out of there.”

####  07 November 2011, Monday

“It feels like such a long time ago that we were here chasing after the Phantom Thief,” Naoto said as she stared at the table they often sat at. “It was an unforgettable case, full of rewards. …I enjoyed it.

“What about you?”

“It was exciting,” he said, ‘just not for the reasons you might think.’

“Yes, I thought so, too. It was even more invigorating to solve it with you,” Naoto replied, smiling cheerfully. Then she looked away. “So, er… I wanted to give you something today… I, er, made this…”

Tsuna was not surprised to see she started blushing.

She stepped closer and held out her hand. “Please accept it.”

He held out his own hand and she dropped something in it. Once her hand retreated he could see it was the detective badge from the Phantom Thief case.

“I haven’t crafted anything like this in some time. If I went back to the estate, I could have added a camera and transceiver… Oh, but it flashes! I made myself one to match. Now you’re my assistant, senpai!”

He smiled. “Leave it to me.”

“All right! You realize I’m quite serious about this, yes?” She looked away again. “The title of ‘detective’ became a burden to me… I thought I had no other aspects apart from the detective self. But you and the others gave me a reason to be, as neither adult nor man… So, I… I was able to face myself as myself. Before the detective, before the child, before the woman.”

She faced him again. “By spending time with you all, I change, day by day. It frightened me before, but now… With everyone… With you, I can proudly proclaim that I am myself. Nothing more, but nothing less.” She smiled gently, then gained a confused look.

Tsuna watched as a ghostly form of her Persona rose up above her and hovered.

Naoto’s strong will that allowed her to accept and overcome her weakness has awakened her heart’s true power…

After a bright flash he could see the Persona had transformed.

Naoto’s Persona has been reborn! Sukuna-Hikona has transfigured into Yamato Takeru!

Naoto blinked owlishly. “This potential … was still dormant within me… I wasn’t considering the things that I should have. The people who care about me, as well as my own self… When I’m with you, I feel fearless.”

The usual—

Fortune Social Link Go! Rank 10!!!!!!!!!!

—was quickly followed by—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Norn, the ultimate form of the Fortune Arcana.

“Well, then, let us begin! There’s a lot you must learn before becoming a detective. I myself can’t relent in my training … to become a formidable woman detective!” She laughed. “We’ll start off with something that may come in handy before too long: shadowing a suspect…”

Thus followed a long lecture about the basics of detective work which, if nothing else, was helpful in keeping his mind off Nanako’s condition.

####  20 November 2011, Sunday

Nothing had really happened in the intervening days, but he kind of didn’t expect anything to. He could have been searching out other Social Links, but his heart wasn’t in it. He had no plans to go anywhere near Kujikawa, couldn’t see himself hunting down Arcobaleno to try to gain ranks with them, and the thought of going near a woman who called herself Death was not appealing.

They started sending clones in again, while keeping an eye on anyone looking to spend time with Tsuna, as well as keeping an eye on Nanako, and otherwise baked, played games with his family, or entertained himself in other ways.

“And now for the weather,” the news announcer said. “The week ended on a wet note as rain clouds moved into the area. As a result, a thick fog is expected to form in the Inaba region later tonight.”

“Time to check the Midnight Channel,” Ken said.

Nothing was there when midnight rolled around, which was at least something.

####  21 November 2011, Monday

Oddly, the fog that had settled in the night before was still present that morning when he glanced out the window. “Maybe we should go in today.”

Sin gave him a curious look, but nodded. “Right.”

They hadn’t gotten very far when Naoto spotted them and raced over. “Take a look at this. Namatame’s in today’s paper.”

He accepted it and checked the article. It said: Today before dawn, the suspect Namatame Taro, who had been confined in a local hospital, regained consciousness. In response to police questioning, he testified that he was sorry for what he has done, and was scared. From here on, the police are hoping to solve the entire case based on the suspect’s depositions.

He grunted. “Considering that—”

“Oh, it’s you guys.”

Tsuna turned and saw Adachi.

“Perfect timing. I just got a call from the hospital. They said that starting today, it’s okay to visit Nanako-chan! Oh, is that today’s paper? So you already know about him…”

“How is Namatame doing?” he asked. “This doesn’t say anything about his mental state.”

Adachi scratched the back of his head. “He’s regained consciousness, but it’s hard to say… He’s still mentally unstable, but we’re slowly piecing together his story. This is still a secret, but I guess it’s okay to tell you guys… You know the diary we found? There were entries about Yamano-san and Konishi-san in it. Looks like Namatame had been making advances on Konishi-san.”

Tsuna frowned. That didn’t sound the least bit likely, not with the way Namatame always seemed to be moping about Yamano those times he encountered the man in town.

“U-Uh, well… I’m gonna head to the hospital now. Dojima-san’s recovering, too, so I need to go over a few things about this case with him.” Adachi walked away, into the fog.

After school they headed to the hospital to see Nanako, picking up an excited Teddie along the way. Dojima was in there, seated in a wheelchair. Tsuna honestly didn’t even know what was wrong with his uncle that he was still hospitalized. He knew plenty of people would call him heartless because of it, but he couldn’t bring himself to much care.

“Nanako?” Dojima said. “Everyone’s here to see you.”

“Mm… Onii … san…” She looked happy, but speaking seemed to cause her pain.

A nurse bustled in and sighed. “Dojima-san! How many times does this make it today? I understand that you’re worried about your daughter, but you still need your rest, too!”

“S-Sorry.”

“Are your injuries that bad, Dojima-san?” Naoto asked.

“Hm, well, my wounds have just closed up, and it seems I have a couple of fractures as well.”

“I’m sorry,” Adachi said. “I’ll wheel him back to his room immediately.”

“What’re you apologizing for?” Dojima asked, looking at his kohai with resigned exasperation.

“It’s almost time for your checkup, so make sure you’re back in your room before then,” the nurse said, then bustled out.

“Onii … san…”

Tsuna leaned in and gently squeezed her hand. “I’m here, Nanako-chan.”

“Yeah… I’m so glad…” she said, then closed her eyes.

As he turned away he saw the look on his uncle’s face before Adachi wheeled him out, one of helpless frustration—and just a touch of jealousy.

“Well,” Sin said softly, “since it looks like Nanako-chan fell back to sleep, we should probably leave, too.”

There was a doctor outside the room, facing Dojima. “Her condition is stable for now, but… I never thought I’d say this as a doctor, but… We still can’t figure out the cause of Nanako-chan’s symptoms. That’s why we can only administer temporary treatments to alleviate her current pains.”

“But she’s not in danger anymore, is she?”

“She’s regained consciousness, but we can’t let our guard down yet. All we can do for now is to continue to monitor her condition closely.”

“…Adachi. How’s it going with Namatame?”

“Well, he’s awake now, but he’s in no condition to tell us anything useful. We only get a little time each day to interrogate him, so we’re stuck until his strength recovers.”

“I see… I should get back to work as soon as possible. Hopefully by then, Nanako will be out of the hospital…”

Adachi scratched the back of his head. “Um… I think Nanako-chan can get more peace and quiet if she stays here. It’s so foggy out, and there’s been some weird rumors going around… Seems like no one knows why there’s so much fog in town.”

“It’s true,” the doctor said. “The number of patients complaining about fog-related health problems has increased. Which is quite unusual…”

“Aren’t they just rumors?” Mukuro asked.

“I can’t say for sure that it has no effect on the human body. It certainly could be a psychological effect. People’s anxiety over the fog could cause problems. But as far as the fog’s chemical makeup… Well, that’s not my field, so I can only speculate. What concerns me is that transportation of our medical supplies has been delayed due to the fog.”

Dojima scoffed. “Fog-related health problems? Now that’s just ridiculous. Anyone who says that is just blowing smoke.”

Adachi took that as a reason to grab the wheelchair handles again and wheel his boss away, so they left the hospital.

“We really need to find a way into that room so we can talk to Namatame again. Here in the real world he can’t pull off another transformation.”

Naoto nodded. “I will do what I can to figure out a way in.”

“Thank you, Naoto-kun.”

####  03 December 2011, Saturday

The fog had persisted every single day. People were slowly starting to get more and more anxious, complaining of sickness, wearing gas masks, and students were bailing on club meetings, preferring to scurry home. Exams had started on the twenty-eighth which, despite everything going on, were a breeze for the student members of Samsara.

On the way in that morning the fog was so thick he could barely see two feet in front of him. Naoto showing up surprised them all, because she just suddenly appeared out of the fog with no warning.

“Oh, I’m glad I found you all,” she said, sounding relieved.

As they walked it gradually came to him that the fog was such a strange colour, and it greatly reminded him of the TV World, way back at the beginning. To see if he was imagining things he took out his Teddie glasses and put them on, then gasped softly at just how clear things became.

“What is it?” Sin asked, then tilted his head. “Glasses?” He pulled his out, too, and put them on, then blinked. “Oh, this is not good.”

Everyone else caught on and wore theirs.

“Putting aside that these glasses help us to see through the fog over there, no glasses would improve one’s visibility in fog under normal circumstances. Could the fog from over there be leaking into our world…?”

During the home stretch near the school gates he overheard two girls talking in frightened voices.

Bag Girl said, “H-Hey, did you hear what they say happened on the Midnight Channel? Someone said they watched it, and there was a picture of this town in complete ruins!”

“Huh?” said Glasses Girl. “My friend said that she saw Inaba get swallowed up by the fog and sent into some other dimension! She said there were monsters coming out of the fog, too! Like in that story…”

“Have you noticed?” Bag Girl asked. “Ever since this fog started… It seems that some people can see the Midnight Channel even when it’s not raining…”

Tsuna exchanged a look with the others. It had never occurred to him to stay up that late on any night that didn’t feature rain. He ran his hands over his face and kept going, to face the final day of exams.

Students were chattering away a mile a minute and gossip flew like bullets from a gun. Kashiwagi finally got sick of it and said, “Shut uuuuuuup! No talking! You’re in class! This city is known to get covered in fog every fifty years. Don’t worry about it! The final set of exams will be starting shortly, so get ready!”

Naoto asked, “Did you get a chance to read the paper this morning?” When he shook his head she pulled one from her bag and placed it on the table.

Tsuna pulled it closer to take a look and read: Some specialists are raising concerns that this fog may consist of harmful substances. More and more citizens are calling for an investigation into the cause of the fog and the facts about it. Though the government has begun its preliminary investigation, many feel that the causes will be hard to pinpoint.

“A lot of people are scared by it,” Daemon said from his place reading over Tsuna’s shoulder. “Plenty of people won’t even go outdoors now unless they have to.”

“It does seem a lot like the fog on on the other side,” Teddie said. “But beyond that, I’m clueless.”

Naoto tapped the paper, a bit down from the fog article. “There’s another item of note here. A summary of Namatame’s career, with details about the case. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say anything new.”

Tsuna dropped his gaze down the page and read the article, but it contained nothing they hadn’t already heard.

“It seems Namatame is still confined to his hospital bed, so further interrogation has yet to commence.”

An ad caught his eye and reminded him of something. “Let’s go to Junes. I have a kotatsu to purchase. I promised Nanako-chan we would buy one together, but…”

They were discussing what to get in addition to a kotatsu (Naoto suggested a Jack Frost doll) when his phone rang. Caller ID said it was Adachi, so he put it on speakerphone.

“Hello? This is Adachi. Um, I want you to stay calm and listen to me, okay? Nanako-chan’s condition suddenly got worse. The doctor wants you to come to the hospital immediately. We’ll be waiting.”

Tsuna ended the call, shoved his phone in his pocket, and hastened off with his friends.

People were going nuts inside the hospital, accusing the staff of withholding medicines they needed to combat the ill effects they had from the clearly poisonous fog. When they got to Nanako’s room they entered to hear Dojima saying, “What the hell’s that supposed to mean!? Can’t you see how much pain she’s in!?”

“All we can do right now is monitor her condition closely,” the doctor said. “Dojima-san, you need to return to your—”

“I don’t give a damn about myself! Do something about Nanako—” He hunched over, in pain?

“Dojima-san!”

“Just save her… For kami’s sake, please save Nanako…”

“…We’ll do our best. I must ask you to step outside for the time being.”

Dojima was wheeled off by Adachi when they exited, but he came back a short time after. “You guys still here?”

“How is Dojima-san doing?” Naoto asked.

“His wounds opened up again. They’re treating that over in his room now.”

“Any luck with your investigation of Namatame?”

Adachi scratched the back of his head; it was a gesture that was really starting to get on Tsuna’s nerves. “Um, about that… I won’t mince words here… We’re gonna have a hard time making these charges stick. I talked with the guys at the station, and it’ll be next to impossible to find him guilty in court. Especially given the reason we took him off our list of suspects for the first case…”

“The fact that he had an alibi,” Sin said.

“Yeah, that. And the whole angle about him putting people into TVs? There’s no way that’ll stand up in court. No one would believe that. What the public wants is when, where, and how Namatame killed those people. And Dojima-san knows it…”

“It’s … amazing how calm you are about this,” Mukuro said smoothly.

“I-I’m just—”

“Is Nanako-chan’s family here?” a breathless nurse asked. “Hurry inside! Please talk to her!”

Tsuna dashed down the hall and back into Nanako’s room.

“Daddy…”

“He’ll be here soon,” he told her.

“…”

“Nanako-chan… Nanako-chan,” said the doctor. “Can you hear us? Do you understand what we’re saying? Your onii-san is here with you. Just hang in there.” He turned to the nurse. “Where’s Dojima-san!?”

“We called for him!”

“Onii … san…”

“I’m right here, Nanako-chan.”

“Mm… I’m … scared … onii … san. Dad … dy…” Her whole body relaxed and her chest stopped moving. To highlight that the heart monitor started screaming a flatline warning.

Tsuna thanked Occlumency and more or less froze his emotions at that point; he could fall apart later.

“Nanako!” Dojima stumbled into the room. “Nanako…?”

“I’m sorry, Dojima-san…”

His uncle’s face went cold and he stumbled back out.

“Nana-chan…” Teddie whispered.

“Teddie, will you…”

Teddie nodded, so Tsuna ducked out of the room, worried that his uncle might do something drastic.

“We did everything we could,” the doctor was saying, “but we still couldn’t figure out what caused this.”

“Dojima-san…?” Adachi said. “What’s with that look…? Huh? What’s wrong, everyone…?”

Tsuna gave him a scornful look. Either the man was too stupid to live, or he just didn’t give enough of a fuck to pay attention.

“…Wait,” Adachi said as Dojima stormed off, seemingly having regained a second wind. “I-Is Nanako-chan…? B-But then … where did Dojima-san go? His room isn’t that way… Wait a sec, that’s the way to—!”

“Dojima-san might’ve gone after Namatame,” Naoto said (for the people who might be having trouble keeping up, like Adachi). “I seem to recall you saying he was admitted to this hospital.”

“Who was the moron who put Namatame in the same hospital?” Sin asked.

“Wh-What are you getting mad at me for?” Adachi said. “This is the only hospital in Inaba, and he’s in no condition to be moved.”

“Where is his room?” he asked.

“I-I can’t tell you that.”

Tsuna stepped closer. A lot closer. “Are you honestly that stupid?” he said coldly. “Do you not get why he’d go there when you just said there’s little chance of a conviction? _Where is his room_? Or do you _want_ someone’s death on your hands?”

Adachi made a weird sound and said, “T-Top floor, the second surgical ward, farthest room back. B-B-But there’s a police guard…”

They got there in time to hear, “C-Call a doctor!”

“Let go of me!” Dojima shouted. “I need to—”

“Holy crap!” Adachi squeaked. “Dojima-san! Quick, get him to his room! I’ll go alert the doctors!”

A few seconds later they were standing there with just each other. ‘That was … suspiciously easy,’ he thought, but was immediately distracted by the sound of a thump from inside the room.

Inside the window was wide open and Namatame was slumped on his knees in front of it.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I-I was scared… So I… I…”

“Considering a furious father was just here to make you pay for what’s happened to his daughter…” he said calmly.

I-I didn’t, I…”

The Midnight Channel came on—which wouldn’t have made a lick of sense were it not for some of those rumors he had overheard—and on it was Namatame in his deliveryman outfit.

“I failed to save her. It’s because you got in my way,” the figure on the screen said.

“Come to think of it,” Naoto said thoughtfully, “Namatame never faced his other self. And we didn’t witness his Shadow returning to his body as a Persona.”

“What … the…”

“I failed. But it wasn’t my fault. And the law can’t touch me anyway…”

“Wh-What…!? Th-This… Please… Stop…”

Tsuna observed it all with a decided lack of emotion.

“Do whatever you want,” TVtame said. “You hate me because the child died, don’t you? I don’t care either way. Living or dying makes no difference to me. But you…” TVtame chuckled. “You can’t do such a thing. You wouldn’t dare, right? I’ll continue ‘saving’ people… It’s my mission!”

“P-Please stop…”

“All right. You need to stop trying to bait us into doing something rash,” he said to TVtame. “Like, I dunno, murder someone?”

The image on the television flicked out and the screen went dark. Tsuna blinked when he got a rank message—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Loki, the ultimate form of the Fool Arcana.

—followed by—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond. It brings thee closer to the truth. Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Judgment Arcana.

—directly afterward.

Adachi barged in, along with a doctor. “Hey—you guys!? What’re you doing!? You can’t be in here!”

“We were keeping an eye on the subject,” Naoto said with admirable calm. “The police officers outside seemed to have their hands full getting Dojima-san to his room. If Namatame were to escape, it would be a disaster for the police’s reputation … and their trust in you, Adachi-san.”

“O-Oh… I see,” Adachi replied. “We’ll tighten security from now on, and I’ll arrange for him to be transported out as soon as possible. So… If you guys can keep quiet about being in here, I’d really appreciate it…”

Naoto nodded and turned to the doctor. “How is he? He seemed to be extremely agitated a moment ago.”

“He seems fine for now, but he really needs his rest. Outside, everyone. Doctors orders.”

“U-Understood,” Adachi said.

They trooped out and lingered by the door, mostly because Tsuna refused to budge. When Naoto opened her mouth to speak he shook his head and nodded at the door.

Mukuro sidled over and whispered in her ear, which caused her eyes to widen.

The police officers from earlier showed back up and took their places to either side of the door and, as Adachi exited the room, a nurse came rushing up.

“Oh, there you are, all of you! Please come with me immediately!”

“One of you go sit inside,” Adachi said to the officers. To them he said, “What are you waiting for? Hurry, go!”

After a mad dash following the nurse, they ended up in Nanako’s room.

“Oh, there they are,” the doctor exclaimed. “Nanako-chan came around!”

“…What?” he whispered.

“It’s very rare to be resuscitated after one’s heart and lungs fail, but it does happen. But until I know why she collapsed in the first place, I can’t say for sure how well she’ll recover from here on… Still, Nanako-chan’s a fighter, and she’s trying desperately to stay alive.”

“Miracles do happen,” Naoto said thickly.

“You should go home for the night. I’ll speak with Dojima-san tomorrow about Nanako-chan’s treatment. It’s rather chilly outside… If it starts snowing, be careful not to catch a cold.”

They were partway down the hallway when Hayato said, “Where’s Teddie?”

“Welcome … to the Velvet Room,” Igor greeted. “It’s been quite some time… Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams. Now, then… Your journey has taken you quite a distance thus far. Do you believe you’ll be able to successfully solve this mystery?”

He nodded. “I can solve it.”

“Splendid. The precise destination of this vehicle… That, too, is getting rather hard to judge. If we continue driving blindly, we may end up leading you further away from the mystery that you must reach. Well…? Why don’t we take a moment to look back on your journey? It was for that purpose that I summoned you here tonight. Margaret?”

Tsuna started hearing people’s voices, those he had played therapist for. Each of them had something appreciative or encouraging to say.

“And it seems you have comrades with you as well… Those heading in the same direction through this dense fog,” Igor added.

It was at that moment that the limousine stopped.

“We’ll be parked for the moment while I confirm our current heading,” Margaret said.

“As I mentioned previously, this year will signal a great change in your life. Though there isn’t much time left, it can be worth your while to take the time to stop and reflect.”

“People are like water flowing in a river,” Margaret said. “There is only one stream, but all who pass through it are affected differently. Some travel fast, some change their course… Experiencing countless events as they travel down the river of time…”

“Just so,” Igor said with a nod. “The state of this room reflects the scenery of your heart. Perhaps this may be a time for contemplation rather than action.”

He could hear something in the distance and realized it was from the waking world.

####  04 December 2011, Sunday

“Have you seen Teddie?” was the first thing out of Naoto’s mouth after she greeted everyone.

Heads around the room shook.

“It’s … possible he went into the TV World,” he said. “He said he’d stay when I asked, but he might not have been able to handle what happened. If he’s not back in the next day or so, then I’m going to worry.”

She nodded. “I’m worried for Teddie myself, but let’s trust in him and await his return. Right now, we must concentrate on the case. It won’t be long before Namatame is transferred to another location. We must hurry, or we’ll miss our only chance to get his perspective on this.”

“Namatame had an alibi for Yamano’s death,” Daemon said.

“Namatame stated, ‘You’re one of the ones I saved. Don’t worry, I’ll save this girl, too’,” Hayato said. “So how can he be a killer if he considers you saved?”

Naoto nodded. “And the Namatame who appeared on the Midnight Channel said he failed to save Nanako-chan, which makes no sense.”

“Next, the warning letters,” he said. “The first said ‘dont rescue anymore’ and the second said ‘if you dont stop this time, someone close will be put in and killed’—I don’t see him being the writer.”

“Yeah, I’m having a hard time believing the guy was stalking you around town,” Ken said, “and peeking in the windows to have any idea you could enter the TV. And why would he say someone close would be killed if he’s so intent on saving people?”

“And why would the TV Namatame say she died when none of us mentioned that part?” Sin added.

“Kami-sama,” she said. “Since this is such an unusual case, I was absolutely convinced that other than the Kubo incident, there was one culprit. Everything is exactly the opposite of what it first seemed. In Namatame’s parlance, ‘failing’ would have been the first two cases, when the victims died. If he had used his method twice, and failed both times, he would hardly have continued using the TV. And yet he did. It suggests that someone else wrote these warning letters while observing the entire case. We urgently need to speak with Namatame face to face.”

Tsuna sighed slightly when a rank message flashed by. He was quickly approaching his “can’t be fucked anymore” limit of tolerance and desperately hoping that his next life was a holiday. Wanting to slowly strangle whoever was responsible for putting him through this particular flavor of shit was surely grounds for a fucking holiday. “Let’s head to the hospital.”

“I have a plan in mind that will buy us some extra time,” she said.


	16. λ21: 16: 04-10 December 2011

## λ21  
16: 04-10 December 2011

####  04 December 2011, Sunday

“Hey, this place is off limits,” said the officer on duty.

“I’m a consultant with the police,” Naoto said, showing her ID. “I’d like a few words with Namatame-san. May I go in?”

The officer reached up to hit the button on the side of his radio and tilted his head toward it. “This is Unit 252 requesting confirmation on an ID… Name of Shirogane Naoto… Huh? Ah, understood. I see.” He straightened up and nodded.

“Well, you’re on the list… I can give you a few minutes, but I’ll have to record your conversation with him for security purposes. Not that I expect you’ll get anything coherent out of the guy. He’s been spouting nothing but gibberish.”

Naoto nodded, then indicated Tsuna. “I’d like him to accompany me as well. He has no identification, but this is an emergency situation and he’s here in Detective Dojima’s stead.”

“Huh?” the officer said as he peered at Tsuna. “Detective Dojima sent him? I wasn’t informed of this…”

“I’ll vouch for his identity,” Naoto said calmly.

“Well, I guess it’s better than dealing with the man himself… We have our hands full with the transport procedures, so the last thing we need is Detective Dojima running wild… Detective Adachi is busy somewhere, too…”

The officer’s radio squawked and he responded, “This is Unit 252. Huh…? I see.”

“Has something happened?”

“Something about a suspicious object out in the lobby…”

“Ah,” she said. “Well, then, this works out nicely. You should back up your colleagues downstairs. We’ll keep watch over Namatame-san. A disturbance in a hospital lobby, after all… It sounds serious.”

“…If anything happens, hit the nurse call button. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Understood. Please be careful.” Once he was off she said, “I knew they were undermanned, but I didn’t expect it to go _this_ smoothly… There’s nothing much inside that ‘suspicious object’, so he won’t be gone long.”

‘And my twins will make sure we have enough time,’ he thought.

Hayato, Mukuro, and Sin appeared from around the corner, and the five of them entered the room. Namatame was sitting in bed, staring at nothing in particular.

“Namatame-san,” Naoto said. “We have a few things we need clarified. We are here to learn the truth. So please … answer our questions.”

His head angled their way.

“Who did you throw in first?”

“The girl in pink, from the inn. Amagi.”

“Is ‘saving’ killing people?”

“No… If nobody saves them, they’ll be killed… That’s why … I put them in there…”

“Then tell me if my estimation is correct so far,” she said. “After discovering the Yamano and Konishi incidents, you realized an appearance on the Midnight Channel meant certain death. Thus, to ‘save’ her from that fate, you kidnapped Amagi Yukiko and threw her into the TV, preventing her killer in this world from reaching her. And you repeated the process, as more individuals appeared on the Midnight Channel…”

Namatame nodded.

“Indulge us in a few more questions,” she said. “Who killed the first two?”

“I have no idea… I want to know that, too…”

“Why the warning letters?”

Confusion flickered over Namatame’s face. “What? What are you talking about…?”

“Why did you enter the TV?”

“I didn’t know… I never thought … it would be that kind of place.”

“…As I thought.”

“You … believe me…? D-Did they find him!?” Namatame asked, becoming agitated. “Did they find the one who did such cruel things! M-Mayumi…”

“Please calm down,” Naoto said. “Our ability to find the culprit rests on you. We know about the other world. We’re the only ones who can fully understand what you have to say. So please, tell us everything you can. Calmly and slowly.”

“You’re willing to listen … to my story…? All right…”

Tsuna had to repress an extremely strong urge to zone out at that point during what was sure to be a long, long story. Instead, he ran his hands over his face and tried to pay attention.

“Soon after my affair with Mayumi became common knowledge I returned to my parents’ home, as if to run away from the scandal. And I started drinking heavily to drown my anxieties. I hadn’t been able to reach Mayumi at all, and that didn’t help, either.

“She’d been disgraced on all the afternoon shows and forced to resign from the program she was on. I caused her so much trouble. I wanted to at least apologize to her, but I couldn’t even do that. I lost the will and energy to do anything.

“Then one day, the rumor I heard some time ago came back to me. Since I had nothing better to do, I sat down blankly in front of the TV and watched my own reflection. And all of a sudden, there was Mayumi.

“The Mayumi inside the TV looked as if she was calling to me for help. When I reached out unthinkingly to touch her my arm disappeared into the TV, as if I had dipped it into a pool of water. I was so shocked that I lost my balance and nearly fell face-first into the TV.

“I was so scared. I couldn’t understand what just happened. I thought maybe I’d gone insane. In the end, I decided to think of it as just a dream, and I went back to the city the next day. The next afternoon, when I got to work… I was fired on the spot, as I expected. That wasn’t what broke me, though. It was Mayumi being found dead. And not just that, but it had happened in my hometown.

“I was dumbstruck, but later on I remembered the image of Mayumi I’d seen that night. Was it not a dream…? Could it really have been an SOS from Mayumi? I hadn’t touched another TV, because the first time was so terrifying, but I decided to try it again. And I confirmed none of it was a dream. So that image… Was it something Mayumi showed me, calling for help? …That’s how I felt.”

“And eventually … you learned of the Midnight Channel,” Naoto said.

“I remembered that when Mayumi was alive, she was chasing a rumor about some bizarre TV program. I’d heard about it before, but I thought it was just an urban legend. But then Mayumi appeared on it, and later turned up dead. The more I thought about it, the harder it became to believe that the two events were unrelated.

“Soon after that, I came back to Inaba to answer the police’s questions. I’d lost my job, and I wanted to know the truth of Mayumi’s death for myself. Then, on another rainy night, someone else appeared on the Midnight Channel. It was a girl. She looked like she was calling for help, just like Mayumi. The first thing that came into my mind was, ‘Maybe this girl will be the next to die…’ ”

“And that was Konishi Saki,” Sin said.

“I’d been following all the news about Mayumi, so I noticed right away that she was the girl who found Mayumi’s body. And if my hunch was right, she’d be the next victim. I didn’t want her to die the way Mayumi did. So I desperately kept watching. I was consumed with the idea of rescuing her. Then … little by little, her image on the screen came into sharper focus.”

“It became sharper?” Hayato asked. “How did you find out it was her?”

“After I came back, my father couldn’t bear to see me in such low spirits, and gave me a job with the family business. I met that girl when I delivered a package to the liquor store. After agonizing over it, I decided to meet her, and told her to be careful. But that same night, on the TV… She looked as if she was being engulfed by some black shape. She was writhing in pain. The next day, they found her dead.

“I knew she was gonna be murdered, but I couldn’t save her. I blamed myself, thinking there must have been something I could have done. There was no one who depended on me. Nobody at work. Not even my wife. Mayumi was the only one who accepted me for who I was. But she was murdered, and the same person killed another girl. I was… I was beside myself. I couldn’t forgive myself for doing nothing!”

“You clearly loved Yamano-san.”

“Yes, from the bottom of my heart. Before I was married, my wife made it big in show business. I was happy for her, but it put a strain on our relationship. It was around that time when I met Mayumi. She was interviewing our candidate for the next election. She was a big-name announcer, but she only worked with local stations, and her attitude toward work was similar to mine.

“We both came from Inaba, so she was easy to talk to. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help getting intimate with her. She … gave meaning to my life. Soon after Konishi-san was found dead, yet another girl appeared on TV… My opponent was a murderer who left no clues to his identity.

“I thought hard about what I could do to protect her from someone like that. The girl inside the TV looked as if she was smiling at me… And that’s when it hit me. I apparently had the power to go through the TV screen to the other side. Then, what if I put her into the TV and gave her shelter there before the killer could get her?

“The girl inside the TV seemed to smile at me again. And I thought, no matter what kind of place it might be, it’s better than being slaughtered. Once things calmed down, I could just let her out again. It felt as if everything was starting to come together in my mind. Could it be … that Mayumi gave me that power, to prevent any more victims from meeting her fate?

“Was it my mission to save people? But there was a problem. If I explained the situation to the victim, they wouldn’t understand. I had already tried that and failed miserably. It seemed the only thing I could do was take them away. If that was my mission … I’d just have to do it. …Or so I thought.

“I thought I was the only one who could help them. I did call the police, but they didn’t believe me. I knew the area well, thanks to my job. I had a large truck, and I could move around without suspicion. I thought my job as a deliveryman would be the perfect cover for my mission. I thought no one else could do it. But … are you telling me I wasn’t saving them…?”

Naoto winced. “If a person is still within the TV World when the fog appears here, they will die. Beginning with Amagi-san, the people you thought you had been saving were, in fact, in mortal peril. It was my friends here who really saved us all.”

“I had a feeling that was it… When I went after the little girl and entered the TV myself… For the first time, I had some doubts about myself. The police were after me, so I had to get away. But I still felt I needed to do everything I could to save that poor little girl. That’s why I went in after her. But the TV World was completely different than I imagined.

“Such an abominable, grotesque place. I knew that the three of you I ‘saved’ went back to your normal lives, so I didn’t realize how terrible that world was. I never knew … you couldn’t even get out of that place on your own. I thought I was going insane—I probably did. And you know the rest. When I came to, I was lying in a hospital bed.”

“You really were trying to save people…”

“But I ended up doing the opposite… What a fool. I always wanted to enter the world of politics, and become useful to society… But after losing my job and the woman I loved … all I had left was this power. I convinced myself that world was some sort of sanctuary. And I secretly believed myself to be a hero. I never doubted what I saw on TV … and believed everything was as I wanted it to be. I didn’t think for myself at all. That’s why I couldn’t protect them. I’m to blame for all of this…”

Tsuna sighed. “What’s done is done.”

“I suppose so. But the things I’ve done are too serious to be brushed aside like that. I have no intentions of running away from my crimes. I’m prepared to face the consequences. Kidnapping is already a serious crime. And on top of that, I put all those lives in danger.”

“The Midnight Channel and the other world…” Naoto said. “You can hardly be blamed for failing to understand them properly.”

“I’m … such a joke… I’m sorry … I’m getting a little tired…”

The door opened and the officer came in. “Wha—!? What’re you all crammed in here for!?”

“My apologies,” Naoto said. “We’ll be leaving now.”

“Wait… I beg you… Please find whoever’s behind this. You children are the only ones who know about that world.”

Tsuna nodded. “That’s our plan.”

“It’s all clear now,” Naoto said. “He never committed any murders. It was another party who was responsible for the first two victims.”

Tsuna twitched as a rank message flashed by.

“Now get out of here!” the officer practically shouted. “I told you, he’s almost ready to be transported! We can’t have anything else happen. Sheesh… I better not see you rascals here again!”

They checked in on Nanako again before they left the hospital. She was unconscious—hopefully just sleeping—and looked to be in some pain.

“Let’s revisit Yamano-san and Konishi-san’s incidents and see if we can turn up fresh details.”

####  05 December 2011, Monday

Since they had the day off they canvassed the town asking questions regarding people’s memories of the time periods when Yamano and Konishi had been killed, trying to glean any extra information.

When it got dark they met at the Rokudo house, as agreed, and Tsuna immediately set to making them all dinner. Stir fry was super simple to make and it would be ready in about twenty minutes, especially with Sin helping him.

“So what have we learned?” Naoto asked.

“Not a damn thing,” Hayato said. “Not one person I spoke to said they remembered anyone suspicious or even new around that time—except for Tsuna, of course, and us.”

“I found one girl who pointed me at another girl, who said she recalled seeing Namatame speaking with Konishi, but she didn’t know what they spoke of,” Sin volunteered. “I assume that’s when he was trying to warn her.”

“Amagi remembered Yamano because the woman was staying at the Amagi Inn,” Mukuro reported. “She said the media was swarming the place, so an officer was sent over assigned to guard her. One of the waitresses said the officer told her that ‘fame could be rough’.”

“The police had an unusually large number of officers in their initial investigation of the first two incidents,” Naoto said. “To find facts that even they overlooked would be difficult indeed, now that half a year has passed. There wasn’t a single report of suspicious persons being witnessed. Yamano had ardent fans whereas Konishi did not, but otherwise the conditions are the same.

“Without any new data to work with… But there must be someone in town who meets all the criteria for this case. The killer must have a connection to both Yamano and Konishi, as well as be in a position to observe our actions periodically, to some extent. Finally, it must be someone who could approach senpai’s house without arousing suspicion.”

Tsuna served up plates and sat down to eat, then said, “A member of the police. Namatame did also say he called the police and tried to explain his fears. If he happened to get exactly the right person—or wrong, depending on how you look at it—then said officer would be aware of what Namatame was talking about and stood back to watch.

“They would further realize that someone was interfering by saving the people thrown in, and would likely investigate to see who was ruining his fun. A police officer may also have been present during that politician’s visit to keep an eye on things and might have been aware of exactly who was being quoted.

“Most people don’t think twice about a police officer being in the area. And at the time they were so numerous they may as well have been faceless or invisible. So—my guess? Adachi Tohru. He can’t possibly be that damn clueless and ineffectual and still be employed.”

Naoto’s jaw had by then dropped, as well as the food held in her hashi. “Detective Adachi… That is an interesting approach. It would certainly explain the lack of witness reports… It’s the same reason no one ever reported seeing Namatame’s truck. In fact, he could use his position to his advantage and hide critical information.”

“Namatame had no one in the room with him that night,” he added. “Wouldn’t it be reasonable for there to be at least one officer in the room with him, in case he tried to escape, say, out the window. Or through the TV… Or,” he said, “consider this. Dojima storms up there to quite possibly strangle Namatame, and Adachi tells both officers to get my uncle back to his room, while Adachi runs off to go alert his doctors.”

“Leaving us there, moments after Nanako-chan … died … alone with her suspected killer,” Mukuro said slowly.

Tsuna nodded. “Maybe he was hoping we would completely flip out and throw Namatame in, knowing it would kill the man?”

“Actually… I’m not sure how to put it,” Naoto said. “There’s something that’s been bothering me for some time now, but I could never quite put a finger on why. Detective Adachi also questioned Konishi-san, the one who found Yamano’s body, on numerous occasions. I heard it was because there was so little information about the case at the time, but… What if he what if he was the officer assigned to guard Yamano at the Amagi Inn?”

“It’d sure as hell be no trouble for him to drop those warning letters into your mailbox,” Ken said. “Not to mention the fact that he can destroy any evidence that might point to him.”

Tsuna looked mournfully at his dinner—the dinner he wouldn’t be eating. “We need to confirm this.”

Naoto nodded and made a call. “This is Shirogane Naoto. Something has occurred to me about the case, and I’d like to get Detective Adachi’s input on it. …Hm? …The transport? It’s right now!? …Right, I-I see. …Thank you!”

Brows raised at her from around the table.

“Detective Adachi is headed to the hospital to prepare for Namatame’s relocation. We must head there at once!”

Tsuna twitched again as a rank message flashed by and quirked a brow at Daemon, who nodded, then got up to race off again. His brother could put his poor serving of stir fry into stasis, so he could enjoy it later.

“Huh? What are you guys doing here?”

‘He says that a whole fucking lot,’ he thought.

“Hey, do you know where Dojima-san went? They told me he snuck out of his room again.”

“I assure you, we’ve made it clear to him several times that he needs to stay put, but he keeps going off on his own,” said a nearby nurse.

“Geez… With Namatame finally relocated, I was looking forward to going home.”

“So… He’s been relocated,” Naoto said. “I’ve been wondering… You seem to be in a terrible hurry to get him out of this hospital.”

“Huh? Oh, well, yeah. I mean, we can’t leave him here with Dojima-san and Nanako-chan around… Don’t you guys think so, too? Hey, what are you doing here, anyway? Nanako-chan’s room is in the other wing. Don’t you think you should leave before Dojima-san finds you? If he catches you, he’ll start pestering you again.”

And speak of the devil… Dojima whipped around the corner and barked out, “Adachi! Where’s Namatame? There’s been a lot of noise today for some reason…”

“D-Dojima-san! What’re you doing here!? Namatame’s already been relocated. I was looking for you so I could tell you that.”

“You did what!? Who authorized that!? There’s still more I need to ask him about!”

“G-Gimme a break, D-Dojima-san!”

“Those first two murders have been bothering me,” Dojima said. “His motives are shaky and his alibi is rock solid. We closed a lot of loopholes on the basis of his testimony, but that part’s still nagging at me…”

“Is this more of your ‘detective intuition’?” Adachi asked. “He’s already been relocated. It’s no use hassling me about it. And you kids really should get home, too. You’re gonna get in the way of police business.”

“What’s gotten in to you today?” Dojima asked. “It’s odd to see you taking work so seriously…”

“C-C’mon, I’m always giving 110% when it comes to the job! You should get back to work, too, Dojima-san. Your current assignment: Get better as soon as possible!”

“…What are you all doing here?”

“We came to confirm something … with Adachi-san,” he said. “So, about when Yamano vanished…”

“The time the announcer went missing…? I can’t say for sure offhand. It’s not like I saw her or anything. That was months and months ago, too. My memory’s kinda hazy that far back.”

“And Konishi? You questioned her multiple times.”

“Why wouldn’t I question her? She discovered the announcer’s body. But she didn’t know much about it, so I only talked to her once or twice. Was that all you wanted to ask? Well, I hope it helped.”

“Funny how you always have somewhere else to be when there are questions,” he muttered. “How about the warning letter, then?”

“Warning letter?”

“The one delivered to his house,” Naoto said. “It’s in police custody now, correct?”

“Uh… I don’t really remember.”

“Hey, whaddya mean you don’t remember?” Dojima said. “I gave it to you to take down to the crime lab for processing. You’re telling me you _forgot_?”

Adachi laughed awkwardly. “I’m sorry… Your accident was right after that, and what with one thing and another, it sorta slipped my mind… B-Besides, that thing was just a prank, wasn’t it? Geez, what’re you asking me all this for? For crying out loud, what’s this all supposed to be about!? Dojima-san, you really need to get back to your bed. That’s why your wounds aren’t healing. And you all need to go home right now! Do you have any idea what time it is!? I’m going back… I need to get to the station and report in.”

“Just one more thing, please,” Naoto said. “We know for certain now that the first two murders weren’t Namatame’s doing. Someone else killed them. Adachi-san… Do you have any idea who that might be?”

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

“Really?” he said dryly. “Because we’re thinking _you_ fit the profile perfectly.”

“What!? Th-That’s ridiculous! We already know Namatame’s the one who put them all in!”

“What did you just say?”

“Put them all in…?” Dojima said. “What’s this ‘putting them in’ business? Do you know something about the method behind their murders? Don’t tell me all that talk about TVs and whatnot from before was…”

“I see,” Naoto said. “Now I finally understand. To tell the truth, Adachi-san, I’ve been fixated on something you once said. Before, I didn’t know why, only that it sounded a wrong note to me. Do you recall when I read Namatame’s diary at the scene of Dojima-san’s accident? At the time I said, ‘Even the victims who survived and were never released to the public are written here.’ And in response your words were, ‘Wow, then that settles it.’

“How, I wonder, would that ‘settle’ anything? At the time, the police had no idea that there had been other attempted murders related to the case. You had no reason to say such a thing. After all, there are countless examples of people disappearing for a few days. Yet when I read the list of names, you raised no objection. Odd, that.”

“I-I don’t know! I-I said I’m busy!” Adachi charged forward, cutting between them, and raced off.

They made chase and ended up in Namatame’s old room. It was empty. He wasn’t hiding under one of the beds, behind anything, in anything, and the windows were both closed. There was still the large flat-screen TV.

“Did you find him?” a panting Dojima asked when he caught up. “I contacted security… Nobody’s seen Adachi, and there’s no record of anyone leaving this area. So he must still be in this ward here.”

“We haven’t found him in here.”

“That bastard…” Dojima doubled over again and was promptly being scolded by a nurse.

“Dojima-san! For heaven’s sake, what are we going to do with you!?”

“Sorry, I got carried away.”

“Do you even want to get better!? If you keep this up, there could be lasting damages! Have you forgotten how much trouble it caused you last time!?”

“You’re right… Sorry,” he said to her, then to them, “You’ve got to find Adachi. I need to square this away with him. Please.”

The nurse manhandled him away. Poor lady probably did not get paid enough to deal with all this.

Tsuna rubbed his face with one hand and pointed at the TV with the other. “We can check tomorrow. I’m tempted to just ditch school and go in first thing, but Teddie isn’t back, and we kind of need him.”

“Shit,” Sin muttered as another rank message flashed up for Tsuna.

Tsuna opened his eyes to see the Velvet Room, but Igor and Margaret were nowhere to be seen. There was, however, an occupant. Teddie was seated on one of the blue velvet couches, lost in his thoughts.

“Where … am I…? Sensei? Why are you here?”

“I’m not sure, but this place is familiar to me.”

“I see… How mysterious… There are so many things I don’t know about. But I did realize something. I’ve been thinking all this time … about who I really am. But I couldn’t find the answer. I was ‘no one’ from the start. Humans live in the other world, and Shadows live in this world. From the beginning, that’s all there was to it. I was just a Shadow in that world…”

“Everyone is worried about you,” he said.

“You’re always so kind, sensei… I figured something out… That day at the hospital, I realized that I really can’t do anything. As soon as I thought that, I lost consciousness. Then when I woke up, I was inside the fog. Shadows can’t stay in the human world, they aren’t allowed.

“I walked and I walked, but there was nothing all around me. Just when I started thinking that I couldn’t go anywhere, I heard the noise of a car. And then I was here… I remember lots of things now. My world is a place shaped by human thoughts.

“One day, a Shadow living in that world awakened to human emotions. But humans and Shadows are completely different entities. So he made himself forget that he was a Shadow. He wanted to forget. He wanted people to like him. And that’s how he came to look like this…

“I really am stupid. What the other Teddie said before… In the end, it was all true. No matter how much I searched for myself, I have no self. There was no me to begin with. I’m just a Shadow that took a different form so humans would like me.

“It would’ve been better if I had never remembered, but I did. I’ll … probably turn back into a regular Shadow soon… Oh yeah, sensei. One day, when you meet Nana-chan in heaven… Apologize for me. Tell her … I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything. Tell her I’m really sorry.

“Nanako-chan is alive, Teddie. She was revived. She’s still fighting. She’ll want to see you, too.”

“Huh—? R-Really!? Nana-chan’s… Wow… That’s wonderful… I’m so glad. Glad that I could at least here that. My heart feels so much lighter now. I’m starting to feel sleepy… What a strange place. It feels so soothing… It’s not like my world. Something just feels so nostalgic about this place. Could this be your dream world, sensei?”

“It’s something like that, yeah.”

“A-ha… But… I wonder why I met you here. What am I supposed to do now?”

“Let’s move on together,” he said. “People are worried for your sake. Come back to us, please?”

“But I don’t know what to look for or how to find it. No matter how hard I think, there’s too many things my little brain can’t understand. But I do understand one thing now… I’m glad that I met you, sensei.”

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create helel, the ultimate form of the Star Arcana.

“I have to get going. This is your place, sensei… It doesn’t seem like somewhere that I’d be allowed to stay… Good-bye … sensei…”

There was a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded him, but when it faded and his vision returned, Teddie was gone, and Igor and Margaret were seated as usual.

Igor hummed. “It seems the words in your memory weren’t the only things you summoned here. This is a room for guests who have an ego that can be nurtured. Shadows—mere fragments broken off from the ego—have no place here.

“The water’s strength has moved a single stone that had stopped, returning it once again into the flow…” Igor chuckled. “Very interesting. Well, now… It’s about time we departed once again. This vehicle is still on its journey. There is no reason to tarry here for long. Margaret?”

“We’re ready to go. Let us depart.”

Igor chuckled again. “You are every inch the guest I had anticipated. Now, it’s time for you to return. I am even more intrigued now as to where this is all headed.”

“We’ll be waiting for your next visit,” Margaret said as it all faded away.

####  06 December 2011, Tuesday

“Brother, if you would please take a look? I had the most interesting dream.”

Daemon’s brow went up, then Tsuna felt him rummaging around in his mind.

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well.”

“Keep an eye out, would you?”

“Of course, darling.” Daemon gave him a hug. “Now feed me.”

Tsuna snorted, pinched Daemon, and then headed for the kitchen.

He received a message after lunch on his phone that Teddie had appeared again (and that Ken had sat on him for several minutes as punishment for worrying people) and raced off to the hospital the second he could, though not without being told quite firmly to get his ass back to the house by the time school let out.

He knew things would be all right when he saw—

Teddie’s strong will that allowed him to accept and overcome his weakness has awakened his heart’s true power… Teddie’s Persona has been reborn! Kintoki-Douji has transfigured into Kamui!

—flash by in front of him. Teddie reminded him too much of Lambo (no matter how annoying the adorable little fucker could be) to not be fond of the bear.

It was interesting, he thought on the way home, that while the fog was still thick over Inaba, the quality of it had changed. It was no longer so yellow and oppressive. “Do you think it might be related to us getting that much closer to the truth?”

“You’re right,” Hayato said. “I’d gotten so used to it being here that I’d stopped paying attention. It’s not as … gross.”

“Maybe it is related,” Naoto said hesitantly. “It is of supernatural origin.”

What he did not voice was his thoughts on that supernatural origin. It was clear that the collective unconscious was having its say in the real world—perhaps their enthusiastic attempt at the extinction of Shadows, the suppressed negative thoughts and feelings of humanity, were pushing back out of a desire to regain the status quo—but he questioned, due to the “fog” in their heads that blinded their eyes, just exactly where it originated from, or from whom.

Teddie was waiting for them when they got to the Rokudo house. He gave the bear a fond pat on the head and said, “You went to see Nanako-chan?”

Teddie flailed his arms. “Nana-chan woke up briefly! She said she heard me all those times I visited. She heard all of us who visited. The doctor, he said that everything about her illness was a total unknown. And I thought … I’m an unknown, but maybe I could change the unknown into the known, that it didn’t matter that I’m just a Shadow. There is something I can do!”

Then he laughed nervously. “Um… Yeah. I’m just a Shadow…” Teddie trailed off, as if waiting to be yelled at or attacked.

“I remember what you said, in that dream,” he said.

Teddie’s eyes went wide. “You do!?”

“Uh-huh. And it doesn’t matter. Teddie is Teddie, okay? You have friends, people who care about you, and that’s really all that matters in the end.”

“It’s true that you may have been born as a Shadow,” Naoto said, “but you now possess the power of Persona. A Shadow is suppressed power. Once controlled by the ego, it becomes a Persona. Doesn’t it follow, then, that you must have developed an ego? Whether the ego masters its Shadow, or the Shadow awakens to its ego… The only difference I see is the order in which the process occurred.”

When Teddie looked confused, Mukuro said, “She’s saying your practically human, little bear.”

“I-I’m … the same as humans…?”

“You keep trying to figure out who you are, just like everyone else,” Daemon said. “You can’t do much on your own, which again isn’t so different. So what’s so different between you and us?”

Teddie sniffled, then cried anime tears as he flailed his stubby arms around. “Th-Tha-Thank you… I-I’m so glad … I met you guys…”

Tsuna gave him another fond pat on the head and a warm smile, then said, “While you were gone, we figured out who the killer was. It was Adachi.”

“Huh!?” Teddie flailed again. “Adachi!? That total goofball!? Whoa… I didn’t notice at all. Looks like I’m pretty blind to that sorta thing…”

“Well, now that we are assembled again, we can see about finding him,” Sin said. “He fled into the TV. You resonate with that world, and you have a talent for sniffing things out over there. We’ll need your help, Teddie.”

“All right!” Teddie said, doing a fist pump, sort of, as another rank message flashed by. “I’ll do my best! Leave it to Fuzzy!”

The fog on the other side was denser than normal and Tsuna felt that a sense of maliciousness pervaded it. Maybe Adachi himself had had an effect on it, and having removed himself to the TV World, some of it went with him?

Teddie hummed and hummed again as he sniffed around, then said, “I do smell Adachi in here, but the fog is completely covering up his scent…”

“If we ever end up in this scenario again,” he muttered to Sin, “I am tempted to say that a certain someone suffers a hilariously stupid death to go with his goofy image, right out of the gate.”

Sin pulled him close and nodded. “I agree. This has been brutal. Being separated so much, being blinded, hamstrung. Having to share you so much with outsiders,” he said sourly.

Tsuna laughed merrily, which seemed to spark something in Teddie, as he growled and redoubled his efforts.

“Oooooooh! I’m getting something!” Teddie did his little cutesy rawr and started pacing around, sniffing vigorously. Then he stopped dead. “Huh? I sense it from … thisaway!” He pointed a stubby arm off into the fog.

“Is it Adachi?”

“Um… How do I put it…? It’s kinda hazy, but at the same time it feels like I got a whopper on the line… Veeery suspicious. But that’s weird. If I remember right, this is where senpai came from when I met him the first time.”

“The hotel room?” he said. “Yamano’s…”

“Let’s go, then,” Daemon said.

“All right!” Teddie said. “Follow me!” He skittered off, squeaks punctuating every step, and they hastened along with him as a rank message flashed by.

“That damn bitch… I noticed her first … and she just had to run off and have an affair…” Adachi suddenly realized they were there (though how he didn’t hear the squeak of the door opening or Teddie’s squeaky steps) and turned around, saying, “Who’s there!? Oh… It’s you guys. You’re very persistent.”

“Give it up, Adachi.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adachi said in a smugly lazy voice.

“Just you being here proves things. You’re the one who threw Yamano into the TV.”

Adachi laughed like that was the most hilarious thing. “It was an accident,” he said. “She started struggling… What else was I supposed to do? I called her out to the lobby because I wanted to ask her something. And then she started getting hysterical on me…”

Bizarrely, a window or screen of some sort appeared behind Adachi, showing them what happened. It was like someone was projecting a memory from an advanced pensieve.

Yamano was standing in a relatively open area. A large CRT was behind her, a pot plant, a small table, and a three-seat sofa was perpendicular to it, along the other wall of the little corner area.

“Who’re you?” she asked. “And what’s this ‘something important’ you called me out here for?”

Adachi stepped into the scene and moved so close to her that she backed up several steps.

“What they say on the news isn’t true, is it? All that talk about you having an affair and whatnot… It’s all a lie, right?”

She frowned. “Why do I have to explain myself to you?”

Adachi advanced again, causing her to back up several steps again.

“I see… So you don’t deny it. You caught my eye, but it turns out you’re another worthless bitch…”

“Kami-sama, he’s a fucking incel,” Tsuna muttered.

Yamano backed up again, in more obvious alarm. “What’s wrong with you…? D-Don’t make me call for help!”

Adachi’s hand raised, his fingers clenched into a fist. “Ugh, shut up, shut up, shut up. I think you need to see what it’s like to fear for your life… It’ll get your head straight.” He advanced again.

She stepped back several more time, and bumped into the TV. “Wh-What’re you going to do…!?”

Adachi reached out and grabbed her neck or shoulders—they couldn’t tell, because the screen blacked out, and all they heard was a scream. When the picture returned they saw Adachi standing in front of the TV. “Sh-She fell in…” Then he started laughing. “Wow… So people can go completely inside…”

The projection vanished.

“Good thing for me no one else was around there in the middle of the night. I learned about the Midnight Channel through some rumor. You hear a lot of fishy stories like that on the force. But it was pure coincidence that I touched the screen and discovered my power. I burst out laughing when I found out. I knew right away that this was going to be interesting!”

“So you … tested it out on Yamano.”

“Nah, it was nothing like that. I’m a very sincere fellow. I was just trying to punish the stupid bitch a little for betraying me.”

“You’re right, he’s an incel,” Sin muttered back.

“Yeah, putting them inside the TV was never the plan. But y’know, both Mayumi and that dippy high school girl struggled for no reason.”

“Okay, so an admission that you killed her as well,” he said, wondering why Adachi was feeling so expansive, and so confident that they would be unable to deal with him.

“Oh yeah… Her name was … Konishi Saki? Or something like that. At first I just called her in ’cause of work-related stuff. Her being the one who found Mayumi’s body and all. And naturally, if there was any chance she’d seen something, I’d need to know, right? So I was all set to be a nice guy to her—”

“Kami help me, he used a key phrase,” he muttered.

“—and then that bitch…”

The projection came back, showing Konishi in an interrogation room. Quite possibly the same one Tsuna had been held in. She was annoyed.

“What’s this about, anyway? Why did you call me in for more questions? I already told you everything I know.”

Adachi advanced into the scene and backed her nearly into the TV there. It was even smaller than the one in the Amagi Inn lobby.

“Well, we’ll get to that. But you know, I saw you this afternoon.” He backed her up again, until she bumped into the TV, then grabbed her by the shoulders. “You were getting pretty cozy with that Namatame—”

She slapped him, causing him to release her.

“Huh… So I’m not good enough for you? Well, I know how to deal with girls like you!”

“N-No!”

Adachi grabbed her and the projection went black. When it came back Tsuna just caught a few ripples on the screen before they disappeared.

“Ugh. These high school girls today. This world’s gone straight to shit. When I was in school, I wasn’t allowed to do anything but study my ass off. I was supposed to be the best of the best, and instead they stick me in the boonies. But, I guess I got this sweet power to make up for it,” he said, staring at his hands. He chuckled. “Life’s not so bad after all.”

Adachi braced a hand against the housing the TV and stuck his head partway inside the screen. “Get on your knees and beg, and maybe I’ll let you out!” After he pulled back he laughed. “Yeah, like that’ll happen. As if I’d walk into a deathtrap like that.”

The projection vanished again.

“It was a lot easier the second time. High school girls are thinner, y’know? Lighter.”

‘He’s clearly never met Ohtani Hanako, then,’ he thought.

“You really are a sick fuck,” Xeul said conversationally.

“C’mon, gimme a break. I didn’t know it was dangerous inside the TV. It’s not like I was trying to kill them. I mean, I’m sure they hit on Namatame, not the other way around. A council secretary will one day rise to public office himself. Mayumi and that high schooler were just gold digging. They got exactly what they deserved. I didn’t do anything wrong at all.”

“And I’m glad we never tried getting into his head,” Daemon muttered from Tsuna’s other side.

“Your testimony contradicts that statement,” Naoto said. “You knew Yamano died, and then threw Konishi in, knowing what would happen.”

Adachi sighed. “So what if I knew?”

“And Namatame? Were you the police officer he spoke to? Did you trick him?”

“Tricked him? Nah… He called the police in the middle of the night, just after they found that high schooler’s body. The rest of the force had their hands full with the double homicide, and it happened that I was the one who took the call.”

“Namatame said the police refused to take him seriously. You were responsible for that, then,” Naoto said.

“Oh, quite the contrary. If anyone else had taken the call, sure, but I actually did believe him, y’know?”

This time the projection showed Namatame, surprisingly, but it could be Adachi’s imagination at work. Namatame was standing in a darkened room, in front of a TV, the screen filled with static, and had a phone to his ear.

“Huh.” Adachi’s voice was tinny coming through the speaker. “That’s the pattern to the two deaths so far? And now you’re seeing a girl in a kimono on that weird program, and you think she’ll die, too. Is that right? Namatame-san… Do you seriously expect us to believe something like that?”

“B-but … it’s true! If there’s any way the police can protect her…”

“Listen… There’s no way the police are going to make a move based on a fantasy story like that. It does sound interesting, though…”

“B-But…”

“…Oh, I have an idea… If you really want to save her that much, why not do it yourself? Like… You could shelter her somewhere. Some place where no one could find her.”

“Where no one could find her…?”

“Save her yourself… You can do it. I’m busy, so I’m hanging up now. Bye.”

Adachi laughed as the projection vanished. “Isn’t that amazing? Of all the people who could’ve received Namatame’s call, it ended up being me. Talk about luck! All I did was give him a little push… And he completely bought into his vision of this world. The more people you guys saved, the more he’d kidnap. Both sides had the best of intentions, so the game of cat and mouse would never end.” He laughed again. “It was awesome.”

“Why?” Naoto asked, because she was the only one naïve enough (aside from Teddie) to ask. “What reason would you have for doing that?”

“Reasons? None, really. I could do it, that’s all. And it was fun. I guess that’s my reason?”

“So you murdered people for fun.”

“C’mon, all I did was put people in here. I didn’t murder them. And Namatame did most of it. I had nothing to do with you ending up in here.”

“Dodging the blame doesn’t make the truth go away,” Naoto said.

“Yeah? Then how would you prove it?” Adachi asked smugly. “ ‘He put people inside TVs’? You think the police are that gullible? I do admit, though, I never thought you guys would manage to track me down. I like that. Games like this gotta have surprises or they get boring fast. It’s like when I dealt with that Kubo kid. That was fun, too.”

“Ah,” Naoto said. “If he had special powers and wanted attention, why would he have resorted to a regular copycat crime? But we were correct. Kubo had no such powers. You threw him in as another scapegoat or cat’s paw.”

“It had been a while since I last put someone inside the TV, so I really got a kick out of that one.”

“Kubo did not mention you,” Hayato said. “What, did you sneak up on him, so he never saw your face?”

Adachi laughed. “I had made sure his hospital room had a decent TV, so I went in when no one else was around, switched off the lights, and did it quick while he was still startled. As long as he didn’t see me push him in, and no one else did, either, no one would believe him. Assuming he survived. Of course, I don’t think the Kubo kid ever did figure out what happened,” he said with another laugh.

“The police station,” Naoto said leadingly.

“Yeah… He turned himself in pretty quick, actually. This was back when we didn’t even know enough to issue a search warrant. But the other officers decided it was just a prank, so they pawned him off on me. I didn’t blame them. I mean, a kid coming and saying, ‘I did it all! It was me!’? Who’d believe him? But it looked bad. I didn’t think anyone would come forward and take the blame for the incidents.

“The police were desperate to pin it on anyone. If this kid really did it, they might have announced the case was closed. And if that happened, Namatame would stop ‘saving’ people. I couldn’t let that happen, or the game would be over. I came up with the idea to put him inside the TV on the spot.”

“I see,” Mukuro said conversationally. “For you, that would have been … disadvantageous.”

“You gotta have some excitement in life, wouldn’t you agree? But then you guys put your foot in it yet again and ruined my fun. Thanks to you, Kubo was arrested again, and everyone acted like he was the true culprit behind it all. Tch. Couldn’t they see how badly he copied the crime scene? It worked out in the end, though, because good ol’ Namatame kept saving people. I guess the guy started to develop some kinda messiah complex, huh? What an idiot.”

“I will never forgive you for these crimes, your betrayal of your job, and the faith people have in the police force,” Naoto said.

“You can keep your forgiveness. Our world will probably become just like this place soon enough anyway. Didn’t you notice? The fog’s leaking out. Everything on that side’s pretty much screwed. The two worlds will merge soon, and then there’ll be no difference, no ‘sides’ anymore.”

Teddie squeaked forward a few steps, sniffing hard. “This isn’t his real body,” he informed them. “The real Adachi is somewhere else. This guy feels different from an ordinary Shadow. It doesn’t seem like he’s going bear-serk.”

Adachi laughed. “Wow, you can tell that much? This me is just around to greet you guys and thank you for wasting your time by chasing me in here. I’d say this world has taken a real shine to me. I feel like it’s given me everything I’ve ever wanted. And the monsters don’t attack me at all. Maybe they can tell we have the same goal…?

“By the end of the year, Inaba will disappear completely into the fog. Soon, this place will be reality. I’ll be in this world, so if you want me, come and get me. This world has a mind of its own. We’ll see which of us it favors.” Adachi vanished with a peculiar, metallic sound.

“I’ll be expecting you all,” came Adachi’s hollow-sounding voice. “We’ll put an end to this.”

Naoto started off with, “His confessions were consistent. We’d best proceed under the assumption that his assertion the two worlds will merge is no lie.”

“It felt like … he’s gained some strong power after coming here,” Teddie said. “Not only that… Maybe he got taken over by that power.”

“He said it would happen by the end of this year. We have a fair amount of time. Several weeks, anyway.”

“The people in town are acting weird,” Teddie said. “It’s like when the Shadows that emerged from people went bear-serk. If the fog gets even thicker and this town is completely shut off from the outside world… Then … the town might become full of Shadows, like over here.”

“People would turn into Shadows, which would strengthen the effect, which would…”

“Spread.”

“Still,” he said. “Why now? What’s different? Is it just that a certain number of people were thrown in, that so many Shadows were agitated due to all of it?”

“Is… Is it because I … came to the other side?” Teddie asked quietly.

Tsuna shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to let it happen. I’m not about to let some psychopath laugh while the world burns. We will end this.”

They were all distracted when a fuzzy black void appeared, then coalesced into a hole in the wall where the window had been, containing another of those red and black portals.

“That path… I sense Adachi’s presence from that direction,” Teddie said. “He’s taunting us.”

Tsuna shook his head. “For now, we go back. I don’t feel it’s wise to go rushing ahead right this second. We go back, prepare, and then we kick his ass.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, which is when another rank message flashed by.

“I have plenty of preparations to make,” he said, then sipped his tea. “Food, certainly.”

“We have a half day on Saturday, and Sunday free,” Mukuro pointed out. “Why don’t we aim for then? We could go in and grind more Shadows, but…”

“You know,” Ken said, “you haven’t been back to that house in a while. Some of us should probably go over and do some cleaning. The dust has probably accumulated. And the food…?”

Tsuna wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, a lot of stuff’s probably gone bad. If we’re lucky and defeating Adachi clears the fog, Nanako-chan might well get better. I wouldn’t want her to come home to a dusty, stinking house. Any objections to waiting until Saturday?”

No one spoke up, so he nodded. “Teddie, you can stay here, okay? It’s not very nice over here right now, but you wouldn’t be over there, with him. Oh, and we still need to buy that kotatsu. And a doll or something. Maybe I could ask Kanji-kun to make one for her.”

####  08 December 2011, Wednesday

Exam scores were in, and … Samsara had perfect scores again. What a shock. He went to the Dojima home after school with Sin, Hayato, Mukuro, and Naoto, to do some cleaning. The place felt empty and lifeless, but he shrugged that off and got to cleaning out the kitchen while the others started tidying up the ground floor (minus Dojima’s bedroom).

“Hey, Tsuna,” Sin called over. “I found something here.”

He set down his burden and walked over. Sin was pointing to something sticking out from underneath Nanako’s usual cushion. He crouched down to retrieve it and saw it was an unfinished, handmade certificate of accomplishment, clearly made by his cousin. “My onii-san is the best in his class,” it said. “He’s a genius!” A more discerning look showed that it would grant him the Endure passive, allowing him to survive death with a single health point, once per battle.

“How does she manage this?” he muttered, touched by her efforts either way.

####  10 December 2011, Saturday

They were fully stocked up on bentos in their storages—Tsuna had realized even Naoto was pulling things out of nowhere while on the other side and chalked it up to game mechanics—so they entered the TV, returned to the hotel room, and entered the portal.

Adachi could be heard laughing, but the sound was hollow. “I told you to come after me, and you actually came!? Don’t you guys have anything better to do? What a bunch of losers. ‘Let’s find the culprit ourselves!’ and ‘Let’s meet up this afternoon!’ Am I right, or am I right? Man, it’s embarrassing. How old are you guys?” He laughed again, uproariously.

“Oh crap, my stomach’s hurting… C’mon. You’re all students, right? Shouldn’t you be studying instead of wasting your time with this? Study hard, get into a good college, work at a respectable company, marry a cute girl… Why are you guys so desperate when it comes to something so useless? Won’t you regret it once you’re adults?”

“I knew he was mental, but the way he keeps contradicting himself is just plain weird,” he said.

“Yeah, man,” Ken said. “First he says it won’t matter because the town will be engulfed and we’ll all become Shadows or something, and now he’s saying we should study because we don’t want regrets as the adults he thinks none of us will ever become?”

Tsuna shook his head and pressed forward. The pathways were cracked, narrow, two-lane roads, with “tunnels” around stretches consisting of some strange amalgamation of tar, paper, cardboard, road signs, and police tape. The “doors” were barriers of police tape, and easily cut through. Every so often were warning signs sticking out horizontally from the walls, high enough that they could pass under, but depicting what looked like a Shadow of some kind having a whoopsy moment, rather than road conditions, or things like an exclamation point.

Magatsu Inaba’s version of stairs was a portal stuck in the wall. On going through the one they found, Teddie suddenly gasped and said, “Senpai! I can’t find any exits!”

“See?” Adachi’s hollow voice came. “I told you. Students should go home and study. Why can’t you listen to me? You’ll never become well-behaved members of society if you keep this up. Oh well, have fun in there.”

Tsuna shrugged, not about to let a psychopath trying to unnerve them get anywhere with it. On an odd note, there were a curiously high number of Glorious Hands in the area, which if nothing else meant they racked up funds quickly. Sin and Naoto could tear right through the things with barely any help.

“There’s a hole in the ground,” Chikusa said.

“…Ignore it for now,” he said. “Remember where, and we’ll come back to it if necessary.”

Continuing on, they eventually reached another “door”, but it could not be cut open. He could see another portal through the strips.

Adachi laughed. “That’s right! As you have guessed, I’m waiting for you just beyond here. But did you really think I’d just let you through?”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. They returned to the hole and jumped down. The new area was called Mandala World 1.

“Oh, you were able to escape!” Adachi said. “Not bad, not bad! You guys are better than you look.”

“Can I kick his condescending face in once we get to him?” Hayato asked.

Teddie sniffed a few times and said, “This place… It feels like Adachi has complete control over the area, just like that door we couldn’t open.”

Tsuna nodded to let Teddie know he had heard, and they pressed on. Aside from the area being a lot more red in terms of tinting, it was not that different in composition. A portal was found and used, which prompted more commentary from Adachi.

“Whoa, you guys never give up. What are you trying to accomplish, putting yourselves in danger like that? Trying to see ‘justice’ done? …Is that really justice, though? Aren’t you doing this because you want a little spice in your boring lives? What’s the difference between that and a criminal who gets his kicks by murdering people? …You see what I’m getting at? There’s still a lot of time left. Give it some thought.”

“Y’know, if he’s trying to enrage us enough to make us do something stupid—like conveniently die—he’s not gonna get anywhere,” Ken said.

“Yeah, but he seems to think we’re average, run-of-the-mill, overloaded-with-hormones teenagers,” Hayato said. “People who act first and think never, or rarely.”

Tsuna snickered. “Inaba isn’t nearly as interesting as Namimori normally, but it’s not _that_ boring. He talks like it’s impossible to go elsewhere for a bit of excitement, like there’s no such thing as bicycles or mopeds or the train, for fuck’s sake.”

Mandala World 3 brought: “Oh, you’re still here? This place is surprisingly boring, you know… Why don’t we play a game to pass the time? Let’s see… How about this!? You can’t encounter the Shadows here. Try and reach me without the Shadows catching you! Ready, set, go!”

Tsuna had noticed a curious thing about the TV World’s many areas. Shadows only seemed to notice him. The others may as well not have existed for all the Shadows perceived—at least until they were engaged in battle, and then they only noticed the front line.

So, avoiding the Shadows on that “floor”? Child’s play, really. They came to a “door” and when he tried to open it, Adachi chimed in again.

“Wow… I’m surprised you made it this far. As a reward, I’ll fight you!”

Half the group scoffed.

“I’m lying, of course,” Adachi said once they cut through. “Like I’d ever do something like that. The only thing you deserve to do is fight against Shadows.”

Their opponent was Chaos Fuzz, and he had a serious issue with loneliness, as he kept summoning more of himself. And if you took just one out, another was summoned by one who survived. So they used attacks that hit all enemies. If that was the best Adachi could do…

“Huh, you’re better than I thought… But how long can you keep it up?” Adachi continued on Mandala World 4 with, “Have you even thought about the ‘truth’ you all want so bad? Who really wants it, huh? Isn’t it just you guys? What good is the ‘truth’ if you’re the only ones satisfied with it? See, you just want to satisfy yourselves…”

On Mandala World 5: “ ‘Namatame is the serial killer.’ That’s what society accepts as the truth. Everyone’s fiercely latching onto it. Let’s just say you guys catch me, and that ‘truth’ is proven false… What do you think will happen then? …You don’t get it? It’s simple. They’ll simply latch onto that instead. Nothing about them or the world will change. That’s the ‘truth’ you’re all looking for…”

When they reached Mandala World 6, Teddie chimed in again. “Huh…? A dead end…? No, there’s something in the center of this area!”

The place was a squared-off spiral, with a “door” at the center. Beyond it was Envious Giant. It was only weak to physical attacks, but had a high counter rate (which was annoying, but not a problem) and liked to spam almighty attacks (which was very annoying, as that was the only thing they could be hurt by).

When it went down Teddie said the earlier block should be gone, so they used Traesto to retreat back to the hotel room, then re-entered the portal and returned to the blocked “door” in Magatsu Inaba. They took the portal and landed in a new variant of Magatsu Inaba.


	17. λ21: 17: 10 December 2011 - ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personal e-book copies: [.azw3](http://ff.grazhir.com/samsara3/Samsara_%20Egregori%20-%20Shivani.azw3), [.epub](http://ff.grazhir.com/samsara3/Samsara_%20Egregori%20-%20Shivani.epub), [.mobi](http://ff.grazhir.com/samsara3/Samsara_%20Egregori%20-%20Shivani.mobi).

## λ21  
17: 10 December 2011 - ???

####  10 December 2011, Saturday

Under the road was a sea of black and red ripples. The road itself was not long, and ended in a roughly circular area. Adachi stood there, staring out at the “sea” or the bloody “sky”. He clapped mockingly as he turned around. “Wow, I’m surprised you made it this far.”

“Allow me to confirm the crimes you’ve committed thus far,” Naoto said.

Tsuna bit back a sigh.

“You had suspicions that this world was dangerous, yet you threw Yamano into the TV. Knowing full well that Yamano died here, you did the same to Konishi.”

Adachi sighed and looked bored.

“Not only that, but you duped Namatame into taking over your murder attempts, while you watched like a spectator at a game. When the disappeared stopped dying, you have the gall as a detective to eliminate a suspect under investigation. Two people died in the last six months, and a young girl is now in critical condition. But that’s not all. If at any turn something had gone wrong, many more would have succumbed. …All for some foolish ‘excitement’, like a criminal reveling in the chaos he creates!”

“Yeah? So what’s your point? All I did was put people in here. It’s the world that really kills them, isn’t it? This world reflects people’s thoughts… Which… Oh dear… Does that mean the real culprits are everyone on the outside, including you?”

“Is he a psychopath or a sociopath?” he muttered to Sin. “I always get those two mixed up.”

“You, an officer of the law, did these things knowing full well that people would die. If that’s not a crime, I’m not sure what you think one is.”

“You’re so self-righteous,” Adachi said with a laugh. “Just because someone joins the police doesn’t make them some kinda ‘agent of justice’. Y’know why I applied? So I could legally carry a gun… That’s all. You’d be surprised how many are like that. I thought it would be fun, too, but to tell the truth, that was a wash. Everyone around me was such an idiot…

“I made one tiny mistake, and they all got on my case and sent me out here to Nowheresville as punishment… I was bored shitless and wondering what to do next … when I discovered this power. A gift for having to put up with this lame job out in Nowheresville, I guess. I did that stuff ’cause I could. And it got interesting, so I watched.

“Let’s be honest. There’s nothing great about the real world, is there? It’s just dull and annoying as hell. No one accepts that’s the way things are… They’re just stuck with it because they can’t deny it, either. Those who actually succeed in life… They just happen to be born with the magic ticket called ‘talent’. If you don’t have it, you can either accept or deny that fact until you die. That’s your only choice. Once you realize that, all you have left over in life is despair. The ultimate game over.

“Wouldn’t it be better if that kind of reality was wiped away? Brats like you are so damned naïve… You piss me off. Listen… You might have hopes and dreams right now, but that’s only because you know nothing about reality. One day you’ll see… You’ll be faced with the boring reality that boxes you in, no matter where you go.”

Tsuna flapped his hand. “So far the only boring thing here is you. You’re a fucking cliché villain with this apathetically evil monologue.”

Adachi sighed. “Stop that. I understand you’re all afraid and gotta act cool to cover it up, but geez… I’m telling you all this based on my own experience in life. Think about it for a second… Once everyone turns into Shadows … they’ll still keep on living, oblivious to all the things around them… So how’s that different from the way it is now? No, this’ll make things much easier for everyone.

“C’mon! How many people out there actually think about what’s real, or what’s right and wrong? Next to none, I bet. It’s useless to think about those things in the first place. You don’t get anything out of facing reality, and there’s no way to change it, either. I mean, what could be more boring than brooding over things you can’t change? It’s better to just ignore them and believe only what you want to believe in life.

“Doesn’t that sound a lot easier? It would be awesome if everyone’s life could be that easy. No matter who you are, your lifespan is about eighty years or so, right? Then it’d be easier if we all just became Shadows. No need to hold back anything… No more pretending we don’t see things. Honestly, we don’t need our world anymore. Better to let it be swallowed up and for mankind to turn into Shadows… That’s what all those people who’re scared to death really want… So it’s my duty to see that they get it.”

Xeul sniffed and looked down his nose at Adachi. “You keep assuming your desires are reflected in every person on the planet. How narcissistic can you be? You fail at life, so you want to drag everyone down to your level, all so you don’t have to deal with your laziness, jealousy, and envy.”

“Geez,” Adachi said. “Don’t you remember what it was like when your Shadow came out? It must’ve been enjoying life far more than you!” He lit up with a familiar blue haze. “You all saw Shadows as mere monsters, didn’t you? These things move on pure instinct! They go wild because you defy them! You annoying little brats are the ones who aren’t wanted in the new world!”

“Living is too painful for you,” Sin said mockingly, “but you’re too scared to die. So you throw a tantrum like a child who can’t have his way.”

“You refuse to face life and admit your fault, running from your own humanity like a coward,” Naoto added. “And though you claim to find life troublesome, you caused nothing but trouble for many others. Your logic is that of an immature, egotistic brat!”

“Sh-Shut up! Stop trying to act all tough… You guys can’t even stand on your own unless you deny everything I said! S-Stupid teenagers…! You have no idea what kinda shit I’ve been through!!”

“ ‘Waah waaah waaah,’ says the unfavored, useless, cowardly criminal,” Tsuna said flatly, noticing that the shadows they cast were shifting bands of red and black. “Your entire existence consists of you running from the truths you can’t bear to face.”

Adachi grunted and hunched over. A black cloud engulfed him and sank in. “The world is about to change. Your existence won’t belong there! I thought I could just leave you be, but you’re like a plague… I’ll have to get rid of all of you!”

“The only plague here is you,” Chikusa said placidly.

“Shut up! Get lost! Get the hell outta my sight!” Adachi summoned a Persona of his own, one that looked suspiciously like Tsuna’s starter Persona, Izanagi, except the colours were all wrong. Where Tsuna’s was black, Adachi’s was red.

It didn’t help him any. He went down easily. A little too easily, in Tsuna’s opinion.

“D-Damn, this is lame… Ngh… Oh well… Our world’s gonna disappear soon, no matter what… I didn’t have anywhere to go back to anyway… Everyone’s gonna become Shadows…” Adachi giggled, then doubled over with a grunt. A moment later he arched back from his kneeling position and stared at the sky, clawed hands rising upward.

He was engulfed in red and black again, and began to float a short distance above the surface they stood on, arms out to the sides in a messiah pose. It was as if something had sucked all the colouring out of him but for the eyes, which were golden, leaving him a human-shaped void.

“All humans … will become Shadows. And I shall descend upon the united world … as the master of order,” Adachi said in a voice not his own. It rather sounded multi-layered.

“The fuck’s he talking about now?” Ken asked.

Teddie flailed. “This isn’t Adachi! It’s someone completely different!”

“Both this world and yours will soon be enclosed in a fog that never lifts. It will be the peaceful world that mankind has longed for…”

“Who are you!?” Naoto demanded.

“I … am Ameno-sagiri… One who rules the fog. One awakened by man’s desires. Do what you will, but your world’s erosion cannot be stopped. It is an inevitability… You played your part well, stirring up the will of the masses into madness. But that will soon come to an end…

“Mankind will soon become Shadows and live on in the darkness of the fog, oblivious of their reality… I am the one who shepherds humans to their true desires. Though their hearts longed for peace, it could never be attained… So they tore down the wall between image and reality.

“Indeed, this is the outcome desired by mankind. And mankind’s desires are my desires. That is why I decided to expand this world… This is part of the sea of unconsciousness that exists within human hearts. A hollow forest born from bloated desires and false imagery.

“Humans view things as they see fit. They wish not for truth, but rather prefer the undesirables be hidden in fog… Still, humans fear what they cannot see. That brief yearning for truth becomes a ray of light which breaks the fog and torments the Shadows…

“It was I who made it possible for you to bring about this destiny. I bestowed power onto those who could brave the hollow forest. That is what allowed you to come in contact with this world… And you all have done very well since.”

“Then, the Midnight Channel—was that phenomenon also your doing!?” Naoto asked.

“Humans fail to see things as they truly are. They choose to see only what they wish. I acted only in support of this. A world filled with desires… Viewed through a window, from which one sees what one wishes to see… Humans departed from reality of their own volition, craving more false images.”

Naoto looked down briefly. “A window that shows people what they want to see… The Midnight Channel we saw in Namatame’s hospital room. That kept bothering me. What we saw there wasn’t Namatame’s true intentions at all… It said those things because we were thinking, ‘What he’s done is…’ ”

Tsuna noted that she did not finish the thought, and felt a rush of pride that she did not fall in and assume it was because they all had to be thinking Namatame was the killer at the time with no lack of conviction. He thought at the time, and did now, that the entity wanted to push them into thinking that way, because that would make its “job” easier.

“The more false images one yearns for, the more one stops yearning for reality… And so the forest grows on… That is the expansion of this world.”

“How about we get to the part where we kick your ass,” Hayato said. “Because no amount of talk out of you is going to make us walk away.”

“Yes… That I did not foresee. The ability to master your own Shadow that emerged to kill you, and use its power… A new and uncertain facet of mankind… Is it worthy to put my trust in, or not…? It must be tested…”

A burning fire arose around the figure and countless shadows swooped in and were absorbed, then it fell to the ground. A wave of yellow fog ringed outward, then ripples of black, like a pool of crude oil. The figure disappeared entirely with a wet squelch.

The sky lightened from sunset to dawn and the blackness bubbled and rippled. From that emerged a huge eyeball.

“The fuck is this!?” Ken said. “The unholy lovechild of Rainbow Brite and Pinhead from Hellraiser?

Tsuna laughed merrily. It was like a spherical Rubik’s Cube, with spikes that spewed more of that yellow fog, and a rainbow of neon in the grooves. The actual pupil was amber, ringed in yellow, surrounded by green, then blue, then red, then black, lashed in purple.

Teddie flailed again. “So this is the cause of all the fog?”

“Indeed,” it said in a voice so thick and distorted that Tsuna had a focus hard to even understand the thing. “I have come to put you all to the test and judge your worth. To defy me is a senseless act which goes against your world’s wishes. Now… Let everything vanish into the sweet fog of illusion… No one wishes for the fog to lift. Why act against the wishes of your fellow man? Consider … is that truly just?”

Shockingly (not, because they were all fucking awesome in Tsuna’s opinion) there wasn’t much that Ameno-sagiri could throw at them that landed. At least, until it started tossing out almighty attacks, but they had three healers on duty.

Bewildering Fog was more an issue, as that negated any of their attacks for several rounds. On the other hand, it gave them time to heal, rest, or charge up. Its Galgalim Eyes attack, which reduced the target’s health to a single point was annoying, but easily healed, and the enervation it could cause (in Naoto, anyway) also easily dealt with.

So they “killed” it. It was getting creepy, anyway, near the end, as the thing shook and jittered in a way that made Tsuna’s stomach complain. It sank to the oily ground and lost all colour except the eye, which was greatly dulled.

“I see… Your powers are strong. Power comes from the heart… You have proven to me human potential… Very well. I will lift the fog from the place where you will return to. Mankind’s desires are my desires. If mankind so wishes, I will return at any time… I am always at your side, watching…”

Teddie hopped up and down a few times, shaking his fist. “Well, don’t wait up! We’ll keep that from happening no matter what!”

“Time will show the path humanity takes… Children of the new potential…” Ameno-sagiri dissolved into motes of light and faded away, leaving behind Adachi, who dropped to the ground and fell onto his back.

“I’m divided on whether that thing was controlling Adachi, or just using him because his own thoughts were in the same line,” Tsuna said. “You know, kinda like Loki.”

“Who can say?” Naoto said. “I believe it was at least partially his own intention as well.”

Adachi sighed. “So that’s it, huh…?”

They stared.

“Fine… Live however you want,” Adachi said in a rough, breathless voice. “If you think … you have the power to change the future … then go right ahead…”

“Everyone has the power to do that.”

“Get outta here… The Shadows will finish me off… Just leave me be… You came to kill me in the first place … didn’t you…?”

“Still a fucking moron, huh?” Hayato said. “No, you get to live and face things in the real world.”

“…Right.”

“I’m sure that’s the outcome Dojima-san wishes for as well,” Naoto said.

A rank message flashed by as Ken and Chikusa moved to drag Adachi up in preparation for leaving.

“Let’s go back,” Naoto said.

“Greetings, Shirogane-san,” said the officer who showed up in response to their call. “We got word from Detective Dojima. He’s wanted on suspicion of murdering Yamano Mayumi and Konishi Saki, right?”

“Correct.”

“Understood. We have an ambulance waiting outside. Should have have them bring the stretcher in?”

“An ambulance…”

“Detective Dojima assumed one would be necessary. He wanted the suspect to be carefully taken into custody. It… Well, it was a personal favor to him.”

“Then yes, please have them bring in the stretcher.”

“Understood.”

Once that was dealt with they walked outside to see if Ameno-sagiri had been truthful. It was cold, but the sky was a gorgeous blue they had not seen in what felt like forever. That caused the final rank message to flash by, along with—

Thou art I, and I am thou. Thou hast established a genuine bond. These genuine bonds shall be your eyes to see the truth. We bestow upon thee the ability to create Lucifer, the ultimate form of the Judgment Arcana.

—which honestly confused Tsuna, because why would he need to fuse another Persona if…?

‘I’ll think about that later,’ he decided. ‘And I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow.’

####  25 December 2011, Sunday

“Hey, it’s me,” Dojima said when Tsuna picked up the call that came in on his phone. “Good news. It looks like they’re letting Nanako come home for a bit. She’s awake again, and she’s got a good amount of strength back, too. All goes well, she might be able to leave the hospital for the time being. As for me, they said I just needed to see a doctor regularly. So I’m planning to come home with Nanako today. Sorry I had to stick you with all the housework. I’ll make up for it somehow. Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

Tsuna stared at his phone for several seconds after his uncle disconnected, then shoved it into his pocket and darted into the kitchen. He had a cake to bake.

“Well, shit,” Sin said. “Someone needs to make a grocery run so there’s food in that house again.”

Daemon raised a hand, as did Hayato and Ken.

“I’ll call Blue Hat and let her know, in case Dojima didn’t think to call her, as well,” Mukuro said.

Sin joined Tsuna in the kitchen so he could assist and add his own special touch to things. “It would have been nice if your uncle had mentioned _when_ they’ll be there…”

Tsuna rolled his eyes. “That’s asking way too much.”

Adachi had confessed, and it was Naoto’s opinion that Namatame’s guilt would be reassessed.

He had the layers out of the oven and cooling when his family got back, sans bags. “We just stepped in and put everything away,” Daemon said, “did a little cleaning, and set up the kotatsu.”

Tsuna smiled brightly at them from his position at the stand mixer. “I’m making two cakes. Those of you who can’t come over without it looking weird get one, too, of course.”

“It is just as easy to do two as it is one,” Ken said.

“So long as you have the counter space,” Chikusa added.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Hayato said. “Ran into Tatsumi on the way back. He finished that doll you asked him about, so we’ll have that to give to Nanako-chan. His mother apparently made him sew in a tag that says it was handcrafted by Kanji. He blushed when he mentioned that part.”

Tsuna sniggered. “Any preference on icing?”

“It’s so warm!” Nanako said happily.

“So this is the fabled kotatsu,” Teddie whispered.

“I was really looking forward to the new kotatsu,” Nanako said.

Dojima chuckled from his seat on the sofa. “Yeah, you talked about it all the time at the hospital. Nanako needs to go back for a checkup tomorrow, but at this rate, the doctors say she can leave the hospital soon.”

“If I’d gotten better sooner, we would’ve been able to buy the kotatsu together,” Nanako said sadly. “Sorry.”

He smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. I just hope you like the one I got.”

“Okay… Next time, let’s go together!”

“You ready for the cake?”

She nodded eagerly, so he got up and retrieved it while Sin got plates and forks.

“Hey, this is bigger than I imagined,” Dojima commented as pieces were cut and served.

“Eight people, though,” Naoto said.

“It’s so delicious and moist!” Nanako said before she went back for more.

Dojima grunted. “Yeah, it’s really good.”

“Made from scratch, including the icing,” Sin said. “That’s our Tsuna.”

“Also,” he said, pulling the doll he had commissioned out of the closet where he’d stashed it, “a happy homecoming present for you.”

Nanako received the Jack Frost doll with a wide smile and immediately hugged it. “It’s so cute! Thank you, onii-san!”

“Tatsumi Kanji made it,” he told her. “You remember him, right? He said he’d teach you how to knit because you liked those knit rabbits he made.”

“Oh, wow…”

Teddie, not to be upstaged, produced his own present. “Taadaaaa! A Christmas present for you, Nana-chan!” he announced as he handed over a stuffed Teddie.

“Oh, it’s so cute, too!” That one was also hugged.

“I wish I could have made it better, but I thought it could keep you company in the hospital,” Teddie said. “Oh, and it’s made from one-hundred percent Teddie fur. I’m a guy who’s all about using all-natural materials!”

“I-Isn’t that nice of him, Nanako?” Dojima said, then muttered, “ ‘Teddie fur’…?”

“Uh-huh! Thank you, Teddie-kun.”

“I have to thank you again,” Dojima said. “Adachi confessed to the two murders. He insists it was him who hung the bodies, too. There are still things that are unclear about his story, but he’s most likely gonna pay for his crimes.

“Anyway, this was one strange case… I don’t even know what to think about people talking about being inside the TV, but… If it is true, then everything might make sense. Though I still don’t believe it. Some things in this world just can’t be explained. Like Nanako… She made a miraculous recovery, and now she’s as healthy as ever.

“Back in the day … my own senpai on the force told me something. ‘There’s an underside to everything that you can never see.’ This case has made me think about a lot of things… You’ve helped out so much… Heh, it was meant to be the other way around, really…”

Tsuna shot a smile at his uncle that appeared genuine and warm to anyone who didn’t really know him. Perhaps he was letting his bias against blood family get in the way, and being rather childish over the whole thing, but there were some things he just couldn’t forget.

Time would tell if his uncle actually manned up and started being a real father to Nanako.

####  11 February 2012, Saturday

Tsuna sighed. Things had been calm since December, which was good. His uncle still gave him the occasional look like he had gotten when he first arrived, but aside from that the man did seem to be _trying_ to focus on Nanako rather than on a mystery he would never solve—not without another miracle, anyway.

“So what is it that’s nagging you?” Daemon asked.

“We might want to call Naoto-kun over here first,” he replied. “If I’m right, she should be here. She would want to be here. Assuming she didn’t go somewhere because of the holiday.”

Shortly thereafter Naoto was seated with them, a curious expression on her face.

“I don’t think this is over,” he said baldly.

“What!?” Naoto said. “But we…”

“Yeah, we did. But. There are loose ends, so to speak. Shall I list them?”

Everyone nodded.

“One: a teacher in class mentioned back in December that there are reports that the fog covers Inaba every fifty years or so. Two: I ran into an old man at the shrine the other day. He said, and I quote, ‘Too many rumors these days. Remember that one about how the fog was making everyone sick? Or that other one… What was it called? Midnight Radio…? That was popular with the kids, all right. My grandson and his friends were all into it. Funny, I remember something kinda like that happening when I was a kid, too. Wonder who starts these rumors?’ ” He paused for the expected reaction.

“The fuck?” Ken said. “Every fifty years?”

“And it’s happened at least thrice,” Daemon said.

“And based on what Hellraiser Disco Ball said, we played the parts we were given to get the fog to leak,” Sin said. “There’s more, I take it…”

Tsuna nodded. “Yep. Several things.” He placed a letter on the table to start. It read:

> I’m sure you’re surprised to get this letter out of the blue. I’m writing this because there’s something I need to tell you. Ever since I made it out alive, there are some things I understand now. It’s true that my game’s over. As you all insisted at the time, I’ll abide by the rules of this world.
> 
> But as long as I’m in stir here, I can’t clean up after myself. So I hope this will give you something to think about, regarding this case. There’s still this feeling I can’t shake… It’s about how it all started ... about that Midnight Channel. Now I remember… Someone told me about it when I first came to town … before I heard the rumors at the station.
> 
> And I was intrigued when I noticed that something similar was written on Namatame’s reports as well. But… I can’t remember who it was that told me. Since Namatame and I both gained our power after coming to Inaba … I have a feeling that has something to do with it. I don’t know if any of this will be useful or not… But I hope it can help somehow.

Once everyone finished reading it he said, “So I went to see Nanako-chan and my uncle, to ask them about that first day, when I arrived. Nanako-chan remembered that I looked sick after talking to that ‘weird’ petrol station attendant. But when I went and asked around, a girl told me they’d only ever seen an older man and an older woman working there.”

“Clearly suspicious,” Naoto commented.

He nodded. “I then remembered I only ever saw the attendant I saw that first day on days it rained. And they—because I never could decide if they were male or female—mentioned at one point how much they loved the fog. I know what I want to do next, but before that… If there is more, if there’s another battle coming up…”

“We’re in, of course,” Chikusa said, though Samsara knew the question was really being presented to Naoto.

“Yes,” she said. “If there is more to this mystery—this case—then yes. We need to see it through.”

“Then I need to talk to Igor,” he said, “which means we all need to go to the shopping district.”

“Igor…?”

Tsuna shook his head. “It’s… It’s apparently something only I can see or perceive, possibly because I’m a Wild Card who can wield multiple Personas, like the joker in deck of cards who can stand for anything. Igor helps by fusing Personas together to make new ones. Don’t even ask me how it works, because I don’t have a clue. But he’s clearly supernatural in nature, so if anyone might have an answer, it’d be him. That fact that he’s even still there is a huge clue that something still needs to be done.”

“Welcome … to the Velvet Room. How may I help you? You have solved the mystery and deflected the disaster that so nearly fell upon you. Is there something else beyond this you need our assistance with?”

“There is one thing,” he said.

“Intriguing… So, is there still something that leaves you unsatisfied?” Igor hummed. “What may that be? Well, then, let’s take a look and see what it is you might be sensing.” He raised his hands, and a sphere of widening white light appeared and winked out, leaving behind what looked like shards of glass rotating around.

Margaret gasped.

“Ah, this is a surprise. These are shards of power, allowing one to see through to the truth of things without being swayed by hollow rumors. Interesting… Indeed you have come here today for a reason. Then I shall play my part as well.”

Igor raised his hands again, causing the shards to coalesce into a shining, golden orb.

“That is a crystal of power which you have nurtured through your journey. …An orb that repels fabrications of all sorts, dispels lies, and shines upon the truth.”

It floated over to him, so he accepted it.

“Truth is a thing which only appears to those who have observed, considered, and made a choice,” Margaret said. “At the end of the path you chose lies the truth. Believe in it, and continue without faltering.” 

Igor chuckled again. “How marvelous… It seems that you will reveal the journey’s true end, one beyond our predictive power. Now go… To the place where everything began…”

When he exited the Velvet Room it was raining. A look down the street revealed that attendant at Moel, the androgynous figure with longish grey hair and a build that gave no clues. A look the other way revealed his family and Naoto, busy appearing to be clueless.

Tsuna headed over to Moel to speak with the figure.

“…? Hi there. Do you need something?”

“This is where I first…”

“First…? What are you talking about? …Oh, is this about that part-time job? I’m sorry, we don’t have an opening yet.”

“Do you know Namatame?” he asked, noting the red eyes, a colour not normally found in humans, and even then only in people with some kind of supernatural power, like flame users.

“…? …Ah, that serial murder suspect? A real tragedy, wasn’t it? But the case was solved, right? Thank goodness. …? Something else I can help you with?”

“Did those two come here?”

“…Well, that’s a weird question to ask. I don’t know if it was right here, but I might have met them before. …I’ve been in this town for a long time, so yeah, there’s a good chance. But it’s not like I knew them personally.”

Funny, he had only mentioned one name.

“…If you’ve got nothing else, you mind leaving me alone?”

Tsuna just stared, a serene smile on his face.

“Oh. You still need something? Hey, I asked you to leave me alone. …Did you miss that?”

“Did you do anything to them?”

“Huh…? To those two? …Ah, that’s right, I remember now. I think I met them when they first came to town. So I greeted them, saying, ‘Welcome to Inaba.’ But that’s all. …Just that.” They chuckled, which could be interpreted in so many ways. “What about it?”

“And me? What did you do to me?”

“What did I do?” They chuckled. “Don’t you remember? I met you here when you first came to town, and did the same thing as what I did to those two. I greeted you, that’s all. Remember? We talked for a couple of minutes. …Hey, mind if I ask you something? Why all these questions? Is there something that’s bothering you? About the first time we met…?”

“Yes, there is, and since I no longer find your evasions amusing I’ll say it straight. You gave me that power, just like you did to them, when you touched me against all custom, and made me ill from it.”

“…” They hummed, then laughed. “Amazing… You’ve reached me at last. Let’s drop this charade. To be quite honest, I was waiting for you to come. Adachi… Namatame… And you… It is I who awakened that power within you three, the ones who had potential. But having said that, I am rather surprised. …So the last battle wasn’t enough for you? You certainly have the powers I was expecting.”

“Why choose me?” he asked.

“For your special potential, of course. Your friends were drawn to the spark I stirred in you. That’s why they are here now with their awakened powers. Still, I didn’t think you’d make it all the way to me. Indeed, I never expected this at all.”

If nothing else, the flip-flopping of statements from ‘I expected you’ to ‘I never expected this’ was so like how Adachi kept doing one-eighties that he was more inclined than ever to believe that at least part of that whole experience was orchestrated by this figure.

“You’re not the only one I welcomed to town with a greeting like that. I did the same for a few other outsiders like you. A handful of strangers were more than sufficient to stimulate a small place like this. But it seems the stimulus was stronger than I imagined—enough to envelop this town with fog, and later lift it… Not only that, you now stand before me as if your assigned part wasn’t enough. What for?”

“For the truth you so desperately want to keep people from.”

“What will grasping the truth do for you? Why such greed? I guess it’s the foolish nature of being mortal…”

The fog rolled in, but of a more natural white-grey colour, not that sickly yellow. And with it came a transformation. The attendant switched from the Moel uniform to a floating woman, robed in white.

“I … am Izanami,” she said, her voice changing to a more hollow sound. “Ameno-sagiri, ruler of the fog, is merely an aspect of myself that I birthed long ago. You awakened to a power I had not imagined. And now you face me with it… I can no longer ignore this situation as mere foolishness. This may be fate, as decreed by the world.

“Very well. This time, I shall pit my full strength against you. But in return … you must come prepared to follow through with your futile resistance.” She chuckled. “I’ll be waiting for you there,” she added, then vanished, along with the fog.

His family and Naoto rushed over. “That seems pretty damn clear,” Sin said.

“Yeah. Hilarious that my starting Persona is Izanagi,” he commented dryly.

Sin was startled into a laugh.

“That part about how we were drawn to you because of that push she gave?” Daemon said, smirking. “Apparently even gods can be blind to the truth.”

“And she would have had to supposedly push Grampa’s secretary, who wasn’t even here, into starting that Phantom Thief case?” Naoto said disbelievingly.

“Well, let’s go stock up, and then we can head in.”

“I sense a tremendous presence,” Teddie said. “It’s unlike anything we faced already. And it seems a new area has formed. It’s thisaway!”

The new area was apparently called Ashihara Nakatsu, and it was a sloping red road with odd pillars and a sky of red cubes. In mythology it led to the entrance to the underworld, Yomi, or Yomotsu-kuni. Here it led into Yomotsu Hirasaka, and given that it had a path number, he had to assume there was more than one floor or area.

Teddie hummed. “It feels strange here.”

The walls were textured black, with square openings rimmed in red. The floor was that same textured black, with red running the length, but it quickly enough changed to that same place Tsuna remembered from months ago, in that dream, with a path fashioned from red cubes with black filler between, and square red sections sometimes, but not always, rotated out of alignment.

Some paths were blocked off by a succession of those rotated frames, and doors were walls of yet more red and black that dilated out of the way when opened. Stairways, if one could call them that, were open frames with a gaseous cloud centered in them.

There was also music, but unlike the club, it was a chill piano track that sounded somehow sad.

“I can’t believe you came without cowering in fear… Is that bravery, or ignorance…? Very well. I’ll be waiting for you at the end of the Yomotsu Hirasaka.”

Next up they heard, “Hm… So, have you come to realize…? The scenery of this corridor… You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I remember.”

“What you saw in your dream that night was the result of your awakening to your power… Could it be fate that I now await your arrival…?”

“More like you purposely taunted me,” he said dryly, “not satisfied to just see what would happen.”

They found a door that caused Teddie to alert them about before entering, so he assumed it was a mid-boss.

“The power that you have attained… And your determination to face me… Let’s see how strong they are…”

Neo Minotaur was a pushover.

Izanami chuckled yet again. (Tsuna was starting to equate her with Umbridge’s habit of clearing her throat.) “So that wasn’t enough to break your will. Come, then… Though you may accomplish nothing but to needlessly prolong your suffering.”

The next path brought: “…So you’ve made it safely thus far. Despair, emptiness, and hope… Those are the three qualities by which I selected those coming from outside… You showed the most grounding of the three; I would expect nothing less. In which case … I will personally and directly test your power.”

“Well, that certainly explains those two,” Xeul commented.

Path five brought: “I cannot believe you’re still unperturbed, even after stepping so far into my realm…”

Everyone but Naoto started laughing at that.

“One had not the eyes to see things as they were, and failed to awaken to his power… One chose to avert his eyes from the truth, and allowed evil to taint his awakened power… But this one… He has come this far, yet he still yearns for the truth… He still fights…”

“Sounds like she went off speaking to herself there that time,” Mukuro said.

At the start of path six she said, “Why…? Why do you oppose me? I did not choose three pawns in jest… It was all to ascertain what mankind wished for. I learned that man gladly favors falsehood over truth… Thus, I sought to fulfill their desires by shrouding the world in fog…”

“Yeah, except for the part where there’s anecdotal evidence that she’s done this before at least twice. And to a god, fifty years happens in the blink of an eye. I ain’t buying it,” Hayato said.

They eventually ran into another door that had Teddie flailing.

“All of this has been chosen by mankind. And whatever strength you possess is still within man’s scope… You cannot surpass me… Learn that!”

Behind it was Sleeping Table. It was a pushover, as nothing it could attack with would land. Tsuna did have to wonder what part of the collective unconscious was coming up with some of these Shadow forms, though.

Path seven brought: “How foolish… Even if you learn of the truth, people will not find joy. …What is best for mankind is to return to the world of the void of its origin, where they do not need to shy away from the truth. All that exists will be a thick fog and writhing shadows—a tranquility called peace, that will last forever. Everything has been wished for and chosen by mankind. I shall abide by their decision.”

Tsuna sighed. “A world with no warmth, no kindness, no love, and no joy. A world with no reason to exist, because all we’d be are mindless, roaming masses of nothing.”

Next she said, “You’ll resist to the end, won’t you…? …Then I shall fight for the ‘good of mankind’ with all my strength. You are but a few pitted against the wishes of many. Your strength is truly astonishing, but you are the exceptions. You will soon reach the place where I am. Now … come.”

“And yet, if she really wanted a fight, she’d have avoided all this bullshit,” Ken said, “and just gotten on with it. She’s just as resistant to the truth as she claims human beings are.”

Tsuna sighed when path nine was reached, for it was a simple path. It rather looked like a cross-section of a tree trunk. At the end, for it was not long, was Izanami. The path widened out at the end, and she floated on fog.

“Congratulations in making it this far.”

Naoto, of course, had something to say. “You granted certain individuals the power to enter the TVs. You created the Midnight Channel, as well. And lastly, you started a rumor about the Midnight Channel to raise its public awareness. Is this correct?”

“All save one point,” Izanami replied. “This ‘Midnight Channel’ you speak of… It is indeed a device to draw hearts into this world. But it was always your individual wills that would determine what appeared on it. Humans ache to expose their suppressed sides, while prying eyes around them are curious to see them laid bare. The want to show, and the want to see… I granted a ‘window’ that catered to both. That is all.”

“Everyone wished to know more about the people who became famous through the media… And the Midnight Channel was there to grant their wishes. Once the person they wanted to see entered the realm of human thought, they would appear even more clearly. I see… So that’s how it worked.”

“Everything was for your sake,” Izanami said, but her eyes had changed, the irides becoming quite small; it gave her a deranged appearance. “To create the world mankind so wanted. Man struggles to understand one another. You can only truly know a finite number of people within your lifetime…

“But humans disregard this fact, and try to know more people than is possible. Only by comparing yourself to others can you define yourselves. Thus your ever-present anxiety. Your anxiety causes you to see only what you want to see, and believe only what you wish to believe. As I said … your desire is for a world enshrouded in fog!”

“Yeah, no,” he said. “Do not try to tell me what I think or feel or want. Or try to enforce this bullshit on people like us just because the sheep are too lazy or afraid to open their eyes. They can never learn if you muffle them in fog and take away their will and ability to think.”

“So fuck your stupid fog,” Ken said. “We decide our fate, granny, not you.”

Tsuna did wonder how it ever came to a point in his many lives that he was about to actively try to bitch-slap a god, but…

She transformed into something out of a psych ward, only less stylish. Whoever thought an elaborate skirt that sort of resembled angel wings went with a straight-jacket must have been not right in the head. And her head had wings. She was also massive, but that did not necessarily mean much. Wait, no, those weren’t wings. It was her hair, and sections of it were wrapped in grey or maybe silver ribbons. Or something. Fashion never had been his thing.

“Yet drunk with the truth, you exceeded your role, and became too involved… Now, learn for yourselves whose wrath you have brought down. Come, sinful sons of man!”

She used a lot of almighty attacks, and sometimes used Mind Charge, but keeping ahead of it was fine. Then … she turned impervious.

“Can you not understand…? It is impossible to defeat me. You understand nothing, I see. Ignorant mortals!”

For some reason he remembered the orb Igor had coalesced for him, and the very thought of it caused a reaction in Izamani.

“Well, then… Allow me to show you my full splendor.”

The straight-jacket and mask came off to reveal bloody, singed bone, and her skirt thing looked stained with blood.

“I … am a god… I’ll teach you the truth of your minuscule existences. You cannot defeat me with strength alone. Soon, you will understand.” When she straightened up her skirt parted to reveal a ribcage, and a spine leading down to skeletal hips and legs. She had another spine-like extrusion to either side, and on each were four skeletal arms. The upper part was the same, with a burned, mostly human skeletal body from the waist up. Everything was bloody.

She of course liked to use almighty skills, and debuff, and Debilitate… Her defense seemed to be lower, though. Tsuna spent a fair number of turns simply using Debilitate on her.

“The stage is already set for your demise. I’ll end your lives here.”

Still, with three healers, people intelligent enough to guard when they saw her charge, and the ability to fuck up her buffs just like she did theirs, it wasn’t long (for a given definition of long when in a metaphysical world where time seemed to have lost all meaning) that she said, “Good-bye. Accept the reality of your death…”

Izanami used something called Thousand Curses. It was aimed at Tsuna, but Sin pushed him out of the way and was dragged down by hands into … something. She did it again, aimed at Tsuna, and Hayato took it for him. And again, and Mukuro took the blow and was dragged down. Eventually he was alone.

“It’s unfortunate that our battle must end this way,” Izanami said. She used it again, and he was dragged down.

He woke to a place like a cloudy sky, which immediately told him he had not died for real, else they would have respawned. Then Margaret appeared.

“What are you doing? Get up. You are not someone allowed to fall here. You must know already… The true nature of the bonds… What bonds give to you… Here, listen closely…”

One by one the people he had completed Social Links with appeared and gave him encouragement, or scolded him. His family… He could see them, faintly, but they did not speak; they didn’t need to. They would always be his strength.

Tsuna pushed himself up and, as he did, felt a change taking place. Izanagi transfigured into Izanagi-no-Okami. And before him was the bloody, skeletal form of Izanagi-no-Okami, who once again used Thousand Curses.

It missed.

“Impossible… Can the will of so few surpass the will of all mankind!?” She then used Oho Ikazuchi.

He survived.

“How can your powers rival mine…? Why…? Why don’t you understand…? It’s impossible for humans to grasp the truth with their own hands…”

Finally able to act, Tsuna checked out his sparkly new Persona. It had but one attack, called Myriad Truths, the word of power that would banish all the world’s curses and falsehoods. So he tucked away his glasses and used it. It was amusing, in a way, how small Izanagi-no-Okami was in comparison to her, but she went down.

“This can’t be… How could I be defeated? How am I the one to disappear…? Instead of the endless struggle, wouldn’t it be easier to wrap oneself in lies and live in blissful ignorance…? Isn’t that true peace for humans…?”

Sin came to stand at his side, Daemon the other, shaking their heads. He could feel the others at his back.

“The hell with that,” Hayato said.

“Very well. Then try and live your way… Power enough to erase my existence… You have already exceeded what I thought humanity to be capable of… You have lifted the fog in this world, as well as the fog in your own… And whether that will lead to happiness or not … rests upon your shoulders. Children of man… Well done…!” And then she was gone.

“Finally,” Mukuro said.

“Yeah, well, maybe there’s truth to those myths, and her husband finally had enough of her shit and pitched in to help,” Ken said.

Tsuna swayed for a moment and was immediately steadied by his brother and lover, but his mind went elsewhere, to the Velvet Room.

Igor chuckled. “How marvelous. You have driven back a godly being and brought about a new world… This will be the last time we summon you here.”

“Soon, the fog will lift,” Margaret said, “and our destination will be visible. We will be arriving shortly.”

“The journey was a fruitful one, worthy of marking a turning point in your destiny. Many a time along the way did the fog of lies prevent you from moving forth… Yet in every instance, you overcame the temptation of easy exits and false terminals. In forging bonds with those precious to you, you moved closer to the truth, one step at a time… And my heart danced with joy to see you succeed. I am most honored to have borne witness to such a wondrous journey.”

“Our destination is close at hand now,” Margaret said.

“Well, then, we have finally come to your journey’s true end. Our contract has been fulfilled. My own duties end here as well… You were a truly remarkable guest. Now go forth, and see with your own eyes. See the world you have won… The bright, magnificent future…”

His vision whitened, then cleared. It looked like he was standing in a version of Japan that had never seen mankind, a lake nestled in a valley between mountains. …With added sparkly things.

“The fog is … all gone!” Teddie said in awe. “I know this place. This scenery. A long, long time ago, everywhere in this world used to look like this.”

“So this is the world inside people’s hearts,” Naoto said.

Tsuna breathed in the clean air and enjoyed the breeze, the feeling of his family so close to him, in a world that resembled nothing he’d imagine as the place in people’s hearts, and said, “I could desperately use a nap.”

####  12 February 2012, Sunday

“For the first time, I’m—no, that’s not true,” he said, then hummed. “It won’t be the first time and I imagine it won’t be the last. But I will feel some regret leaving this world when the time comes. I will definitely regret hurting Nanako-chan. We’ve met some … interesting people here.”

Sin gave him a kiss as Daemon leaned closer and said, “So? When do you plan to share a memory of what happened?”

“Gimme a minute here. I’m trying to express my feeeeeeelings,” he said with a scowl. “Shit, now I lost my train of thought. It derailed in the face of your curiosity. …I was tired, and bored, and annoyed, and feeling somewhat apathetic about all of that. Until I got dragged down. I mean, I fully expected that even if your bodies were destroyed, it would be all right. It always has been. Maybe I’ve come to rely on that too much, that certainty, that you’d all always come back to me.

“And then I got dragged down. It was tempting, for a second,” he admitted, his voice thickening and his eyes becoming wet. “But then Margaret appeared and scolded me, and then everyone else appeared and scolded me, and you were all standing there, quiet, steady presences… The next one really needs to be a holiday. Really. And maybe the one after that.

“Shoving me into a world where I have to connect to people outside my chosen family… Where I can’t just tease and troll and help who I want to help… I’m feeling very resentful right now. Unhappy that we were so restricted at times. Angry. At having some hypocritical bitch of a goddess blind my eyes. But some of the people are really nice, so it’s not like it was a waste, even if most of my blood family is, again… And we saved the world. Again. Twice over.”

He wiped his eyes and pulled out a memory strand, then held it up.

Daemon stayed with him while the others went into the pensieve, partly because he could just lift the experience from his mind. Mostly because he was Tsuna’s first and dearest and knew it and cherished it.

“She really was over the top,” Daemon commented lightly.

“She was.”

“And now you have God Slayer in your list of titles.”

“…I do.”

“Along with Troll, Prankster, Leader, Friend, Brother, Cousin, Family, Lover, Beloved…”

He sniffled. “Teddie is happy.”

“He is. It’s interesting that he remembers what it was like there so long ago. I can’t say that I’m surprised that he decided to keep that as his home world.”

“This was a … strange journey,” he said. “I hope we don’t come back to a variant any time soon. Though if we did, yeah, I’d off the defect shortly before I was due to arrive here. Well, no,” he said before Daemon could point out the logical inconsistency. “I’d arrange for a seemingly natural death for the defect after I arrived. Or… You know, I’m not sure. Do you think this power, these Personas, would carry over?”

“Well, I sure as hell don’t want to be in danger of falling into the TV for the remainder of my existence,” Daemon commented, “but maybe that part of it only applies in worlds like this one. The Personas, though, I expect were always there, even if not quite the same form. In some ways it’s not much different from our flames, an expression of our souls and our resolve.”

“I’m kinda thinking I’m not too fond of mystics, either.”

“Igor?”

“Yeah. Damn cryptic babbling. He seemed like a servant to a higher power rather than a boss. I wonder for who.”

“He did assist you, with fusions and with that orb at the end, the shards of truth or whatever,” Daemon said. “So I’d have to say he’s an agent for… Well, the Velvet Room doesn’t seem to exist in our reality, so I’d place it somewhere in the collective unconscious…? If so, if that is the case, then perhaps his boss is the embodiment of the better parts of humanity?”

“And an entity like Izanami represents the apathy and sloth and other negative aspects of humanity? If that is true, or something like it, it just means that a situation like this will happen again at some point. So we only saved the world temporarily. With respect to this, anyway. The overall balance has been … saved, so to speak. But this?”

Daemon nodded. “Bad things happen to people through no fault of their own. It’s how they react to it that would lead to another entity like Izanami, assuming she didn’t come from the outside. But let’s set that thought on the back burner for now. Let’s enjoy the time we have left in this dimension.”

He hummed agreeably.

####  15 February 2012, Wednesday

He ran into Mourning Lady at the river after deciding to go fishing. She noticed him, chuckled in amusement, and said, “I am surprised.”

Tsuna gave her a mildly puzzled look. “…Why?”

“I told you I am Death,” she said, a faint smile of amusement lingering at her mouth. “Of course you did not believe this in a literal sense—why would you? But there you were, creating bonds with people in this town, having their hearts join yours to see through the fog. But you did not seek out Death to gain power. I find it curious, and refreshing, and not a little foolish.”

His mildly puzzled look morphed into one of suspicious confusion. “I didn’t take it literally, no. And I didn’t deliberately avoid you. You might say I’ve already gained power from Death, and I’ve seen precious little reason to use those instruments.” Either she was a batty old lady overfond of cats (though who wouldn’t be?) and would take whatever he said with a grain of salt, or she was some kind of supernatural entity that walked reality’s lands, and would therefore not sell him out as a nutcase in need of drugs, electroshock therapy, and a padded cell.

She chuckled again, though the sound remained light, unlike Izanami’s version of it. “Yes, I am aware of those three instruments of Death. And beyond that, given how you and your loved ones move on from existence to existence. You might say I have a hand in that, too. After all, the dead returned to life are not meant to remember.”

His brow crinkled as he struggled to figure out what to believe or how to respond.

“Do not be alarmed,” she said. “I consider you … something like an avatar, just as this form I currently wear is. Simply be aware that, in the future, should you return to a world in this particular section of the multiverse, forming a bond with Death will only help you with the struggles imposed upon you.” She chuckled again, then faded away before his eyes, the sound of her amusement lingering after she had gone.

Tsuna was so weirded out that he turned around and retreated to the Rokudo house.

####  02 March 2012, Friday

“There’s a letter for you,” Nanako said, holding it out. Her expression was a curious mixture of cheerfulness and wariness.

Tsuna frowned slightly and accepted it. Again, who would be writing to him? As it turned out, it was his mother, letting him know that he was expected to leave Inaba and move to Tokyo to be with her again.

‘What the everloving fuck?’ he thought.

“What’s wrong?” his cousin asked.

Tsuna bit his lip in consternation. “It’s from my mother. She … wants me to come live with her and her new husband.”

“…Oh,” Nanako said sadly.

“I’m not happy about this,” he said softly. “She made it clear that—” He bit his lip again. Nanako was far too young to hear something like that. She did not need to hear about a selfish mother when her own mother, Chisato, was so cruelly ripped away from her.

“This says she’s already made arrangements for me to be enrolled in Shujin Academy for my final year. It seems I’m not being given a choice.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Nanako-chan. I had every intention of being able to be here this coming year, and teach you more about cooking…”

“…Yeah. But I know you’d have to go away eventually.”

“It doesn’t make it any easier being so sudden and unexpected,” he said sourly. He had a feeling his family was already on the job, having nominated someone to go scout Shujin to get the layout and a feel for the place, which would presumably be shared via pensieve.

“Um… Does it say how soon?”

He looked at the letter again, not having gotten past the initial demand. “I’m supposed to leave next Saturday.”

“Uh, well, this will get Nanako-chan used to the idea of you not being here long before you actually kick it?” Ken said, trying to make him feel better about things.

Tsuna grunted. “I was thinking… Maybe we should plan out some kind of alleged kidnapping, stage it, and I disappear, so that when the inevitable does happen… Not sure which would be less painful in the end for my cousin.”

“Eh, I think the kidnapping would be better,” Chikusa stated. “It’s still a heartbreaking loss, but with the doubt involved…”

Tsuna shrugged. “Let’s all think it over, come up with some kind of prospective plan. After all, I’m being forcibly transferred to Tokyo. Tons of weird shit goes down there, I expect.”

“Speaking of,” Mukuro said, “I already did a run-by and have the memory in a vial for when we’re ready to go over it.”

“Might as well look now,” he said. “I have time before I’m supposed to be back.”

It looked like any other Japanese high school in most ways, though he found it confusing that first year students were on the third floor, and third year students on the first. On the other hand, he would only ever have to use the stairs if he needed the library (highly unlikely) or got called into one of the offices.

The teachers looked pleasantly boring after experiencing Egyptian Lady and Hand Puppet at Yasogami, which was something of a relief. The downside to the whole deal, aside from having to abandon Nanako-chan, was that he would be enrolled by himself. The upside, of course, would be the use of a clone. He couldn’t imagine bothering to actually attend in person except on exam days.

####  14 October 2014, Tuesday

It was a day like any other day when it happened, despite it being his birthday. He was at the station, waiting for his train, so he could go into work at a diner on Central Street in Shibuya. He had moved out of his mother’s house the moment he could, having gone to live with his “good friend” and get a job rather than go to university. His relationship with that version of Nana had not gotten any better, mostly due to his refusal to even try after she discarded him, then turned around a year later and demanded he move to Tokyo.

Why? She wanted to show off her handsome, reliable, intelligent son. And his stepfather found use for him as a way to charm the daughters of his business associates, which paved the way to better deals for Ishihara. Tsuna did not appreciated being used that way, but unless he was willing to fake his kidnapping or death so early on, not something he could protest, and it was not a big enough issue to send one of those brow quirks at his Mists to request a forcible attitude adjustment.

Something went wrong with the driver of the subway train and, as the crowd began to panic over an incoming runaway train, a woman nearby flailed comically. Tsuna was so busy being amused by her actions that the sensation of cold death prickling up his spine came too late (as usual) and he was pushed onto the tracks by someone rushing closer to get a good look at the ensuing train wreck, their phone held up to film what was going on.

“Where the fuck are we?” Daemon said, gazing around in confusion.

Tsuna himself was flustered, not understanding what was going on. This wasn’t normal! Normal was waking up, usually as a five year old, with his family’s souls harbored in his own. But they were all right there, physically. And the landscape! 

The land around them was mostly wild, though the path they stood on appeared well traveled—by foot, not by wagons or other vehicles. Toward one direction they could see a wide river that … glowed. There were motes of light rising up from it, but they did not ascend up to the sky. They would rise and fall and lazily drift around. It was overcast, as if to hide the sun to make the motes more prominent to their vision.

In the other direction was dense forest. The few people they could see were very oddly dressed and were engaged in one of several activities. Shopping, at what seemed to be a small shop of some kind in a building with alien architecture and stylings, socializing, resting, or waiting for what he assumed would be transport over the river.

A set of travelers came up the path toward them and paused when hailed.

“Excuse me,” he said, “but we seemed to have gotten … lost. Can you tell me where we are?”

The two travelers gave each other a knowing look. “Had a run-in with Sin, did you? Try not to worry. Sin’s toxin affects people in different ways. As for where you are, the Moonflow is just south. You can catch a ride on the shoopuf if you’ve the gil. North along this road is Guadosalam.”

“There’s a map at the shop back there,” the other one added helpfully, “so you can get your bearings.”

“Thank you. You’ve been most kind.”

The two waved and continued on, leaving Samsara to stand there, still having a WTF moment.

Tsuna was the first to snap out of it, pulling his family over to the side of the path, so as not to impede the travels of others. “Okay, we clearly got dumped into an entirely new subset of the multiverse, so let’s prepare our poker faces. I think we’re going to need them.”

“Right,” Sin said slowly. “My name is going to be an issue. I’ll be using Ren, for now.”

“Next, we need to, indeed, get our bearings, so let’s go check out that map.”

The map, which was plastered to the side of the shop, was as enlightening as it was confusing. For one thing, the world looked very small and was more of a series of islands than anything else, though the one they were on was quite large in comparison to the others and the main landmass. The writing on it was also puzzling. It almost looked like English, but the “font” used was as alien as the architecture.

People were purchasing goods at the shop with various types of coins in gold, silver, copper, and what vaguely resembled jade due to the colour. Some were round, some octagonal, one was even pentagonal, and the green one had a hole in the middle. As best they could tell without horning in to get a closer look or outright steal some of it, the various coins denoted various denominations of gil. The most he could say is that resembled yen or older Chinese coins.

Tsuna soon realized they were receiving some odd looks, mostly aimed at Sin, and he further realized they were casting disapproving looks at the gun his lover was sporting, which was in plain view for some reason. Once he had the map memorized, he urged them away again, to a quieter spot.

“People are reacting badly to your weapon, schatz. Not getting any feelings as to why, either.”

Sin scowled and made it vanish.

“So, we can either cheat our way across that river and take a long damn walk to get to the nearest city, or head north and see what the hell Guadosalam is,” Ken said.

“The name alone is confusing!” Hayato complained. “It sounds like a combination of Italian and Arabic.”

Xeul looked down for a moment, then said, “I’m setting up a window on that shop so I can listen in to various people.”

Tsuna nodded. “If someone else passes by headed north, will someone open a window on them so we’ll know what to expect if we head that way?”

Mukuro said, “Already did, actually. But I’m thinking maybe we should retreat to the trunk, so we can all watch it.”

“Yeah, uh…” He looked around for a likely spot for an anchored Bounding Box, then found a stand of trees that would serve nicely. Shortly thereafter they were inside their trunk home and sprawled in various places. Both windows were prominent.

The former just revealed generic conversations, so they focused on the latter, which revealed that in addition to the land being mostly untouched, there were creatures roaming around that would attack anyone they caught sight of. The weird part was what happened when they died. Instead of just … dying … they would dissolve into motes of light, reminiscent of the river to their south.

“Do these people even eat meat?” Chikusa wondered. “Is it even possible?”

They also noticed that those same creatures would drop loot, rather like Shadows did from their previous world. If nothing else, it provided a way to legitimately obtain funds, though there was always the option of attempting to sell base or precious metals, which they always kept a stock of.

Xeul had remained focused on his window while occasionally eyeing the second, and eventually said, “Weapons like guns are highly frowned upon. They’re considered ‘machina’, and are generally used by something called the ‘Al Bhed’.”

“It’s a good thing I can reach out to former dimensions to obtain supplies,” he said. “And that these people seem to have some capability with a form of magic. It won’t look completely out of place when we use our abilities.”

The walk was not that long to get to Guadosalam from what they could see, though the … people … there were not humans as they knew it.

Inside Guadosalam—after a pleasant stroll through dense woods, which led to an opening in the side of a simply massive tree—was a different form of alien architecture. But, considering that the Guado, as they were called, looked like some human-plant hybrid, it was not as surprising as it could have been.

The Guado home was inside the tree, one so large that there was a tree in the center of the interior which housed their form of a hotel, and individual homes and shops were tucked into chambers that were (or seemed to be) organic parts of how the tree had grown. There were multiple levels, with wide, flat branches forming pathways and ramps, and at the far end was an elaborate façade surrounding an equally elaborate door, which suggested the placed was owned by a noble.

It all gave Tsuna a bit of a headache, actually.

What was obvious and strange was how the Guado, with their branch-like hair and overly-long arms and fingers, had a tendency to sniff a lot when they were nearby. Eventually a rather stately-looking Guado slowly wandered over to them (everyone drifted rather than walked, and no one hastened).

He was garbed in red, green, and gold (an odd combination to Tsuna’s mind, and which brought to mind Christmas decorations) with green hair. “I am called Tromell Guado,” the being introduced itself. “I have come to inquire as to why so many Unsent have … graced … our home.”

Tsuna blinked. “…Unsent?”

What followed was a quick lesson in the mechanics of the world and the understanding that they had quite literally willed themselves into physical existence, and that the Guado had noses keen enough to sniff out Unsent due to their connection with the Farplane (which Samsara immediately decided against visiting).

They retreated from Guadosalam and set up a new Bounding Box so they could enter the trunk.

“If we freakin’ willed ourselves into existence,” Hayato said slowly, “because that’s a thing here apparently, then maybe in the next world we won’t have to hijack people’s bodies?”

“I’m certainly hoping that’s the case,” Sin said.

“You say that because you’re a vain peacock who hates knowing he’s in a body of substandard natural looks,” Xeul teased playfully.

“Bite me.”

“Right, I am definitely taking this as a holiday,” he said cheerfully. “Who’s up for cheesecake?”


End file.
